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JOHN    TAYLOR 

A    SCOTTISH    MERCHANT 

OF 

GLASGOW    AND    NEW     YORK 

1752-1833 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/johntaylorscottiOOdefo_0 


JOHN    TAYLOR 

A    SCOTTISH    MERCHANT 

OF 

GLASGOW    AND    NEW    YORK 

1752-1833 


A     FAMILY     NARRATIVE 

WRITTEN     FOR     HIS     DESCENDANTS 

BY 

EMILY    JOHNSTON    de    FOREST 


*sp*' 


Still  o'er  these  scenes 
And  fondly  broods 

Time  but  the  impres- 
As    streams     their 


my  memory  wakes, 
with  miser  care; 
sion  deeper  makes 
channels  deeper  wear. 

— Burns. 


NEW    YORK 

PRIVATELY    PRINTED 

MCMXVII 


on 


; 


COPYRIGHT,    1917 
BY    EMILY    JOHNSTON    DE    FOREST 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 
PAGE 

John  Taylor Title 

From  a  painting  owned  by  his  great-grandson,  Charles 
Austin  Sherman. 

Fintry  Parish,  Stirlingshire       ....         5 

From  a  map  published  by  John  Thomson  &  Co.,  Edinburgh, 
1820. 

Bible  of  Margaret  Scott 12 

Given  to  her  on  her  wedding  day,  October  27,  1783. 
Owned  by  Emily  Johnston  de  Forest  (Mrs.  Robert  W.  de 
Forest). 

John  Taylor  and  Margaret  Scott   .       .       .       16 

From  paintings  owned  by  their  great-granddaughter, 
Emily  Johnston  de  Forest. 

John  Taylor's  Three  Daughters  ....       18 

Margaret,  Mrs.  John  Johnston 

From   a   painting   owned   by  her   granddaughter,  Emily 

Johnston  de  Forest. 
Eliza,  Mrs.  Thaddeus  Sherman 

From  a  miniature  owned  by   her   granddaughter,  Jessie 

Sherman  Stevens  (Mrs.  Richard  G.  Stevens). 
Janet,  Mrs.  Charles  Sherman 

From  a  miniature  owned   by  her   granddaughter,  Helen 

Sherman  Pratt  (Mrs.  George  D.  Pratt). 

Bloomingdale  Farm 30 

The  country  home  of  John  Taylor,  1796-1833. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 
PAGE 

Robert  Lenox  Taylor 32 

From  a  miniature  owned  by  his  granddaughter,  Miss  Amy 
Lenox  Varnum. 

Map  of  Bloomingdale  Farm,  1834     ...       52 

Located  south  of  the  site  of  the  New  York  Public  Library. 

Family  Chart 56 

The  Ancestry  of  John  Taylor. 


JOHN    TAYLOR 


JOHN    TAYLOR 

I 
CAIRNOCH-ON-CARRON-WATER 

JOHN  TAYLOR,  my  great-grandfather,  was  a 
Scot.  He  was  born  in  Stirlingshire,  which  in  a 
sense  is  the  core  of  Scotland,  holding  as  it  does 
the  Palace-Fortress  of  all  its  kings,  Stirling  Castle,  and 
the  chief  battleground  in  its  history,  Bannockburn. 

Of  his  forbears  but  little  is  known.  My  cousin, 
John  Humphreys  Johnstone,  who  is  well  versed  in 
genealogical  matters,  obtained  recently  from  the  Regis- 
ter House  in  Edinborough,  through  a  cursory  exam- 
ination by  a  member  of  its  staff,  some  copies  of 
documents  in  the  way  of  wills,  deeds  relating  to  land, 
and  extracts  from  parish  registers.  It  is  to  be  regretted 
that  parish  registers  at  that  period  were  very  irregularly 
kept,  blanks  constantly  occurring,  while  at  earlier 
periods  they  were  not  kept  at  all.  Therefore  the 
materials  collected  in  this  experimental  search  are 
fragmentary.  The  subject  has  not  been  looked  into 
thoroughly,  nor  have  other  possible  sources  of  informa- 
tion been  drawn  upon.  These  documents  form,  how- 
ever, the  only  collection  of  facts  which  is  available 
for  the  early  period  of  our  study,  and  the  genealogi- 

[3] 


JOHN  TAYLOR,  OF  GLASGOW  AND  NEW  YORK 

cal  data  derived  from  them  are  embodied  in  the 
chart  which  accompanies  this  paper. 

To  tell  the  story  of  my  great-grandfather  we  must 
begin  with  his  ancestors.  About  the  year  1700  there 
lived  in  Stirlingshire  three  brothers:  Andrew  Taylor 
"in  Lag  of  Fintry,"  William  Taylor  "in  Craigtown 
of  Fintry,"  and  James  Taylor  "of  Easter  Cringate."* 

The  Andrew  Taylor  named  above  was  the  grand- 
father of  John  Taylor  of  New  York  and  the  other 
brothers  were  his  great-uncles. 

James,  the  third  of  these  brothers,  was  portioner 
of  Easter  Cringate  and  at  an  early  period — certainly 
before  1750,  but  we  do  not  know  just  how  early 
— was  also  portioner  of  the  property  in  St.  Ninians 
Parish  called  Cairnoch.**  In  1750  he  owned  a 
portion  of  this  land,  which  was  then  known,  and 
perhaps  still  is,  as  "Holecraig."  In  the  year  just 
mentioned  he  bought  another  portion,  namely,  Ashen- 
trees,  and  later,  still  another,  Sheilhill.  The  entire 
tract  which  he  then  held  comprised  about  five  hundred 
acres.  Since  Cairnoch  adjoins  Cringate  on  the  south, 
it  is  quite  understandable  that  James  Taylor,  who 
owned  land  at  Easter  Cringate,  should  have  wished 

*  For  information  regarding  the  parentage  of  these  brothers,  see  the  chart 
at  the  end  of  this  pamphlet. 

It  must  be  understood  that  the  word  "  in  "  as  "  in  Lag  "  indicated  tenancy 
in  some  place  called  Lag,  while  "of,"  as  "of  Easter  Cringate,"  indicated 
ownership.     "  Portioner  "  meant  owner  of  a  part. 

**  John  Taylor  of  New  York  spoke  in  his  Will  of  "  Carnoch  .  .  .  near  the 
Parish  of  Fintry."  It  really  was  situated  in  the  adjoining  Parish  of  St. 
Ninians. 

After  studying  old  and  new  maps  and  all  the  available  material,  it  is 
evident  to  me  that  "  Cairnoch"  is  the  proper  spelling  of  this  name,  though 
it  is  very  probably  pronounced  "  Carnoch." 

[4] 


ROAD  TO 
GLASGOW 


LOUP  OF  FINTKT 

ON 
ENDRICK  WATER 


CARRON 

WATER 


[  EASTER 

CRINGATE 
CRAIGANNET  HILLS 


MAP  OF  STIRLINGSHIRE 

Published  by  John  Thomson  &  Co.,  Edinburgh,  1820. 

This  map  shows  the  Parishes  of  Fintry  and  St.  Ninians,  also  the  Town  of  Fintry,  Loup  of  Fintry  on  Endrick  Water,  Easter  Cringate,  Cairnoch,  Carron  Water,  Waterside, 
Carron  Bridge,  Bannockburn,  St.  Ninians  and  Stirling.      The  battlefield  of  Bannockburn  lies  to  the  southwest  of  St.  Ninians  Church,  where  the  word  "  Park  "  appears  on  the  map. 

More  recent  maps  show  that  the  elevation  here  called  Craigannet  Hills  comprises  a  ridge  with  two  small  peaks,  each  about  1300  feet  high.  The  most  easterly  is  called 
Craigannet  Hill  and  the  westerly  one  Cairnoch  Hill.     It  is  the  latter  which  slopes  downward  to  the  south  where  the  Cairnoch  meadow  land  lies  on  Carron  Water. 


Furlongs  \S 


SCALE   OF   BRITISH   MILES 
Z  3 


mm^^ 


CAIRNOCH-ON-CARRON-WATER 

to   increase   his   property   holdings   so   as    to   include 
part  of  Cairnoch-on-Carron- Water. 

We  shall  hear  a  good  deal  about  Cairnoch,  a  por- 
tion of  which  belonged  later  to  our  John  Taylor, 
and  as  none  of  his  American  descendants  have  prob- 
ably ever  seen  this  lovely  region,  it  may  not  be  amiss 
to  give  here  a  description  of  it,  written  by  a  relative 
who  in  1819  drove  out  from  Glasgow  in  a  post  chaise 
to  visit  it. 

"Through  the  Vale  of  Fintry  the  Enrick  winds 
its  way  toward  Loch  Lomond  &  it  is  here  a  beautiful 
stream.  By  its  banks  we  advanced  up  the  valley 
toward  Carnock.  About  one  mile  from  the  latter 
place  above  the  Loup  of  the  Enrick  we  gained  the 
high  ground  ...  on  the  sides  of  the  northern  ridge 
and  extending  down  to  the  Carron  lies  the  Carnock.  .  . 
It  contains  about  500  acres  .  .  .  the  lower  part  is 
meadow  land  on  the  Carron/' 

The  view  from  Cairnoch  Hill  is  of  historic  interest. 
Eight  miles  distant  as  the  crow  flies,  is  Stirling  Castle 
on  its  rock,  and  eight  miles  from  the  same  ridge  is  St. 
Ninians  Church,  at  which  the  Field  of  Bannockburn 
begins.  From  this  hill  Cairnoch  is  to  be  seen,  spread- 
ing out  below  and  stretching  down  to  Carron- Water 
— a  much  larger  property  than  the  part  which  was 
owned  by  James  Taylor.  It  is  indeed  a  matter  of 
record  that  there  was  in  early  days  a  "Laird  of  Cair- 
noch." There  is  another  place  of  the  same  name  in 
Stirlingshire  near  Airth  with  a  gray  old  mansion 
built  in  1548  but  that  must  not  be  confused  with 
Cairnoch-on-Carron-Water. 

[5] 


JOHN  TAYLOR,  OF  GLASGOW  AND  NEW  YORK 

James  Taylor  of  Easter  Cringate,  portioner  of 
Cairnoch,  died,  apparently  in  1752,  soon  after  he 
had  purchased  Ashentrees  and  Sheilhill.  His  Will 
was  proved  in  1755,  and  from  it  much  corroborative 
evidence  has  been  derived  regarding  the  direct  an- 
cestors of  our  John  Taylor.  In  the  Will  the  testator 
appointed  five  tutors  (guardians)  for  his  eldest  son 
and  heir,  John  Taylor  "in  Easter  Cringate."  The 
first  tutor  named  was  the  testator's  brother,  Andrew 
Taylor  in  Lag  of  Fintry;  the  second,  his  nephew, 
James  Taylor,  son  of  his  deceased  brother,  William 
in  Craigtown  of  Fintry;  and  the  other  three,  Benny 
of  Drum,  Buchanan  of  Berriehil,  and  Bruce,  portioner 
of  Cairnoch,  must  have  been  men  of  some  consequence, 
for  they  were  all  property  owners  in  the  vicinity. 

By  the  terms  of  the  Will,  John  Taylor  in  Easter 
Cringate  inherited  his  father's  Cairnoch  land,  but  he 
seems  not  to  have  valued  it  very  highly,  for  at  some 
subsequent  date  he  sold  it  to  his  cousins,  sons  of  his 
uncle  Andrew,  who  were  named  respectively  James 
and  Andrew  "in  Lag  of  Fintry."  By  the  purchase 
of  this  hillside  property  these  brothers  became  joint 
owners  and  portioners  of  Cairnoch. 

Of  James  Taylor,  in  Lag  of  Fintry,  who  was  prob- 
ably the  elder  son,*  we  know  almost  nothing,  save 
that  his  wife  was  Jean  Kay  and  that  they  had  a  son 
named  Robert.  As  to  the  Cairnoch  lands,  for  some 
reason  James  did  not  remain  in  undisputed  possession 
of  his  portion.  James,  Duke  of  Montrose,  evidently 
held  some  kind  of  claim  against  it,  which,  however, 

*  A  son  of  John  Taylor  of    New  York  said   in  1841  that  he  thought  his 
grandfather,  Andrew,  was  not  the  elder  brother. 

[6] 


CAIRNOCH-ON-CARRON-WATER 

was  finally  settled,  for  on  April  28,  1795,  James  Taylor 
received  from  the  Duke  a  "Charter  of  confirmation 
and  resignation"  for  his  half  of  the  "land  of  Kernoch 
now  called  Sheilhill,  Ashentrees  and  Holecraig." 

It  was  presumably  in  1810  that  James  Taylor 
in  Lag  of  Fintry,  died,  for  on  July  3rd  of  that  year 
his  son  and  heir,  Robert,  took  possession  of  the  land 
and  on  August  10th  of  the  same  year,  with  the  con- 
sent of  his  mother,  Jean  Kay,  mortgaged  it  to  a  family 
named  Blair.  Possibly  James's  undivided  half  never 
came  back  into  the  hands  of  the  Taylor  family. 

In  Fintry  Parish  Andrew  found  his  bride.  Those 
parish  records,  which  are  still  extant,  show  that 
in  1749  the  marriage  of  Janet  Buchan  and  Andrew 
Taylor  was  "listed,"  and  a  wedding  naturally  fol- 
lowed soon  after  the  intention  had  been  "listed." 
It  is  rather  strange  that  Janet  Buchan's  marriage  was 
listed  in  Fintry,  for  she  belonged  in  the  near-by  par- 
ish of  Kippen.  Her  name  may  have  really  been 
Buchanan  instead  of  Buchan,  for  the  Taylors  not 
long  afterwards  had  relatives  of  that  name,  and  many 
such  clerical  mistakes  occur  in  the  old  parish  registers. 
The  name  of  Buchan,  however,  was  not  uncommon 
in  Scotland. 

After  the  marriage  Andrew  took  his  bride  to  the 
house  which  was  to  be  her  home,  at  any  rate  for  a 
time.  This  was  a  stone  house  with  a  thatched  roof 
in  the  little  town  of  Fintry,  where,  according  to  true 
Scotch  fashion,  all  the  houses  were  built  in  exactly  the 
same  style.  In  this  house  Andrew's  son  John  (John 
Taylor  of  New  York)  was  born  in  1752. 

To  little  John  his  father's  ownership  of  Cairnoch 

[7] 


JOHN   TAYLOR,    OF    GLASGOW   AND    NEW    YORK 

meant  much.  He  always  loved  it  and  in  later  years 
had  a  great  deal  of  sentiment  regarding  its  possession. 
While  he  was  a  boy,  however,  he  never  thought  of 
sentiment,  never  knew  that  he  would  some  day  in- 
herit his  father's  share  of  the  land,  but  just  played, 
care  free,  among  the  rocks  on  that  beloved  hillside  or 
fished  in  the  turbulent  waters  of  the  little  stream  or 
perhaps  watched  his  father's  sheep  lest  they  should 
stray. 

He  possibly  spent  his  youth  as  well  as  his  child- 
hood with  his  father  at  Fintry.  We  know  that  he 
later  crossed  the  seas,  but  before  that  time  he  un- 
doubtedly tried  his  fortunes  in  Glasgow,  for  we  find 
him  recorded  after  his  arrival  in  New  York  as  "from 
Glasgow,  in  North  Britain,  Merchant."  It  is  indeed 
quite  possible  that  he  came  to  this  country  as  the 
agent  of  a  Glasgow  merchant,  John  Burnside,  who 
was  his  life  long  friend  and  who  some  years  after 
John's  arrival  in  America  made  him  his  partner. 

In  1777  the  Revolutionary  War  was  in  progress, 
the  British  had  been  in  possession  of  New  York  for 
about  a  year,  and  everything  indicated  that  the  re- 
bellion of  the  Colonies  would  soon  be  quelled.  There- 
fore this  may  have  seemed  an  auspicious  moment  for 
an  ambitious  young  Scotchman  to  cross  the  seas  and 
make  the  most  of  the  new  opportunities  offered.  When 
he  sailed  for  America,  we  do  not  know,  but  in  May, 
1777,  when  twenty-five  years  old,  we  unexpectedly 
find  young  John  carrying  on  a  well-established  business 
under  his  own  name  in  New  York. 

As  the  first  New  York  directory  was  not  pub- 
lished until  1786,  we  gain  no  information  from  that 

[8] 


CAIRNOCH-ON-CARRON-WATER 

source  regarding  John  Taylor's  early  days  in  this 
country,  but  fortunately  for  us,  newspapers  antedating 
the  directory  (Rivington's  Royal  Gazette,  the  New 
York  Mercury,  the  New  York  Packet,  etc.)  contain 
advertisements  of  John  Taylor's  business,  so  that  we 
are  able  to  follow  his  career  quite  clearly  from  the 
time  of  his  arrival  in  this  country.* 

For  some  years  before  this  date  Whitehead  Hicks 
had  been  Mayor  of  the  city  and  had  lived  at  184 
Queen  Street  (later  called  192  Pearl  Street).  This 
house  was  on  the  south  side  of  the  street,  about  twenty 
feet  west  of  Maiden  Lane  and  very  near  the  so-called 
"Fly  Market."  In  1776  Mayor  Hicks  had  resigned 
his  office  to  become  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court 
and  had  gone  to  live  on  his  Long  Island  farm.  His 
Queen  Street  house  was  then  rented  to  John  Taylor 
and  became  what  was  apparently  his  first  "vendue- 
store  " — for  John  Taylor  in  his  earliest  New  York 
days  was  an  auctioneer.  Indeed  at  that  period  most 
business  men  who  were  afterwards  identified  with 
the  dry  goods  trade  began  as  "vendue  masters"  and 
commission  men.  Such  was  evidently  John  Taylor's 
start  in  his  new  home. 

The  newspaper  notices  sometimes  referred  to  184 
Queen  Street  as  a  dwelling  house  and  sometimes  as 
"John  Taylor's  Vendue  Store,"  but  that  is  easily 
understood,  for  in  those  days  a  merchant  conducted 
his  business  on  the  ground  floor  of  a  building  and  lived 
in  the  upper  part  of  it.    The  earliest  advertisement  of 

*  We  learn  some  of  the  following  details  (all  of  which  it  has  been  possible 
to  verify),  from  a  sketch  of  John  Taylor's  life,  written  by  his  grandson,  John 
Taylor  Johnston,  for  the  Arbitration  Records  of  the  New  York  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  1779-1792. 

[9] 


OF    GLASGOW   AND    NEW    YORK 

a  vendue  at  this  store  appears  in  the  New  York  "Mer- 
cury" of  May  12,  1777. 

"Fine  old  'paintings,  late  the  property  of  Mr.  Cornelius  Low, 
deceased  .  .  .  will  be  sold  at  12  o'clock  tomorrow,  at  the  house 
of  Mr.  John  Taylor,  near  the  Fly  Market  where  Judge  Hicks 
lately  lived  and  where  the  paintings  may  be  seen  in  the  mean- 
time." 

How  interesting  it  would  be  if  we  could  now  see 
Mr.  Cornelius  Low's  collection  of  "Fine  old  paintings"! 

At  his  store  our  John  sold  "broadcloths,  forrest 
cloths,  German  serges,  swanikins,  fearnoughts,  duffles, 
2j^  and  3  point  Indian  Blankets,  lawn  handkerchiefs, 
thread  laces,  ivory  combs,  durants,  tammies,  Dutch 
hats,"  and  "a  variety  of  other  articles  too  tedious  to 
enumerate." 

Thus  matters  continued  until  1780  and  then  on  June 
3rd  we  find  our  friend  at  the  same  address  on  Queen  St.  but 
now  a  full  fledged  merchant  and  a  member  of  the  firm 
of  Burnside,  Taylor  &  Co.,  the  senior  member  of  the 
firm  being  his  Glasgow  friend,  John  Burnside.  The 
next  year  the  firm  moved  to  a  store  at  58  Water  Street, 
and  there,  in  addition  to  the  usual  assortment  of  dry 
goods,  they  offered  for  sale,  "soap  and  candles,  Irish 
butter,  Scotch  snuff,  pieces  of  capetting,  cut  soles, 
dresses,  calfskins,  saddlery,  needlework  lawn  aprons, 
Morea  gown  patterns,  men's  military  shoes,  women's 
callimanco  and  French  heel  ditto,  best  death  head 
and  basket  buttons  [whatever  kinds  of  buttons  these 
may  have  been],  jewelry,"  etc.  They  offered  to  accept 
in  payment  "potash  and  .  .  .  timber  or  plank  fit  for 
ship  building."    All  these  for  the  British  market. 

The  records  of  the  New  York  Chamber  of  Com- 

[10] 


CAIRNOCH-ON-CARRON-WATER 

merce,  which  had  been  organized  some  years  before 
John  Taylor  came  to  the  city,  show  that  he  was  duly 
elected  a  member  on  August  3,  1779,  and  for  the 
next  three  years  his  name  was  frequently  mentioned 
as  one  of  a  committee  of  seven  "to  hear  and  determine 
disputes  between  parties  who  shall  leave  such  to  this 
Chamber." 

Meanwhile  the  Revolutionary  War  was  drawing 
to  an  end.  On  October  19,  1781,  Cornwallis  sur- 
rendered, and  in  the  summer  of  1782  the  preliminary 
treaty  of  peace  was  about  to  be  signed.  Evidently 
John  Taylor  felt  that  it  was  now  high  time  to  bestir 
himself  and  to  do  all  he  could  further  to  advance  him- 
self and  his  business.  He  had  been  in  New  York  for 
over  five  years  and  had  probably  done  well  financially, 
but  since  he  needed  more  capital  with  which  to  en- 
large his  business,  he  decided  to  cross  the  ocean  once 
more  and  seek  to  procure  it.  There  may  have  been 
another  and  very  important  reason  which  tugged 
at  his  heart-strings  and  made  him  long  for  a  return 
to  his  native  land,  but  that  is  merely  a  supposition. 

Rivington's  Royal  Gazette  of  June  29,  1782, 
announced  the  "dissolution  of  partnership"  of  the 
firm  of  Burnside,  Taylor  &  Co.,  and  on  September  18th 
of  the  same  year  John  Taylor,  then  "intending  for 
Britain,"  asked  immediate  payment  from  those  in- 
debted to  the  firm.  Apparently  he  sailed  soon  after 
this,  leaving  whatever  goods  were  still  unsold  to  be 
disposed  of  at  auction  in  January,  1783,  after  he  had 
returned  to  Scotland. 

It  must  have  been  in  the  early  days  of  1783  that 
John  Taylor  found  himself  once  more   in   Glasgow, 

[in 


JOHN   TAYLOR,   OF   GLASGOW   AND    NEW   YORK 

but  our  first  information  as  to  his  presence  there  re- 
lates to  his  marriage  the  following  autumn.  Where 
did  he  meet  his  bride — his  "dear  Margaret  Scott"  ? 
It  seems  probable  that  it  was  in  Glasgow,  for  it  was 
there  that  he  had  lived  for  some  time  before  he  first 
left  Scotland,  and  there,  at  any  rate,  that  on  October 
27,  1783,  he  and  Margaret  were  married. 

One  of  Margaret's  wedding  presents  is  still  extant — 
a  tiny  Bible  in  two  volumes.  It  was  printed  in  Edin- 
burgh by  "His  Majesty's  printer"  in  1788,  and  besides 
the  text  of  the  Bible  it  contains  "The  PSALMS  of 
DAVID  in  Metre"  as  then  sung  in  the  churches.  The 
dark  leather  binding  is  covered  with  fine  gold  tooling 
in  a  quaint  old  pattern,  and  on  the  inside  of  each  front 
cover  is  a  slip  of  red  morocco  on  which  in  gold  letters 

we  see 

"  MARGARET  •  SCOTT 
October  •  27  •  1782  " 

I  wish  we  could  know  whose  loving  hand  gave  her 
this  precious  token.     Probably  her  father  or  mother. 

The  only  mementoes  of  Margaret  Scott  which  have 
descended  to  us — her  portrait,  her  Bible,  and  the  letters 
from  her  step-brother,  Andrew  Thompson — were  all 
owned  by  her  daughter  Margaret.  The  much-prized 
Bible  has  just  been  given  to  me  by  my  cousin,  John 
Humphreys  Johnstone.  I  well  remember  that  "  The 
PSALMS  of  DAVID  in  Metre  "  were  sung  in  the  old 
Scotch  Church  when  I  was  a  tiny  child. 

Of  Margaret's  early  life  we  know  even  less  than  we 
do  about  that  of  her  husband.  There  is  the  following 
reason  for  believing  her  father's  name  to  have  been 
James.    It  was  an  old  Scottish  custom  to  name  a  first 

[12] 


BIBLE    OF   MARGARET   SCOTT 

GIVEN  TO  HER  ON  HER  WEDDING   DAY,   OCTOBER  27,    1783 


CAIRNOCH-ON-CARRON-WATER 

son  after  his  paternal  grandfather,  while  the  second 
boy  was  usually  named  for  his  father  or  for  his  maternal 
grandfather.  Thus  Margaret's  first  son  was  named 
Andrew  after  her  husband's  father,  and  her  second 
was  named  James  Scott,  presumably  after  her  own 
father.  But  both  these  sons  came  to  her  after  she 
went  to  live  in  America. 

Although  love  of  Margaret  may  have  been  one  of 
the  reasons  which  brought  John  Taylor  back  to  Scot- 
land, we  know  that  there  was  a  compelling  one — 
the  need  of  capital.  His  father,  Andrew  Taylor  in 
Lag  of  Fintry,  was  still  living  in  1783.  To  him  the 
son  applied,  and  Andrew  treated  his  boy  with  the 
utmost  generosity.  We  can  imagine  Andrew  saying 
to  himself:  "There  is  Cairnoch — it  will  belong  to 
John  some  day.  Why  not  give  it  to  him  now,  when 
its  possession  will  be  of  so  much  advantage?"  And  so, 
on  January  8,  1784,  before  John  returned  to  New 
York,  his  father  deeded  Cairnoch  to  him,  reserv- 
ing for  himself  only  a  life  interest  in  it.  On  January 
14th,  John  in  turn  deeded  the  land  to  his  former 
partner,  John  Burnside,  the  Glasgow  merchant — pre- 
sumably a  business  arrangement  by  which  the  property 
could  be  used  for  their  mutual  benefit. 

Some  time  during  the  year  1784  John  returned  to 
New  York.  One  indication  of  this  is  given  in  the 
books  of  the  St.  Andrew's  Society,  which  tell  us  that 
it  was  in  this  year  that  he  became  a  member  (as  was, 
of  course,  the  bounden  duty  of  every  loyal  Scotchman) , 
and  the  records  show  that  in  after  years  he  held  office 
more  than  once.  Another  proof  that  he  came  back  at 
this  time  is  found  in  the  "New  York  Packet,"  an  ad- 

[13] 


JOHN  TAYLOR,  OF  GLASGOW  AND  NEW  YORK 

vertisement  in  which  says  that  in  September,  1784,  he 
was  established  in  his  new  store  at  225  Queen  Street. 
Margaret,  his  wife,  did  not  come  to  New  York  with 
him  but  stayed  in  her  Glasgow  home  until  after  the 
birth  of  her  little  daughter,  Margaret.  (This  little  girl 
it  was  whom  I  so  dearly  loved  many  years  later  as 
"Grandma  Johnston.")  Whether  the  young  husband 
returned  to  Scotland  to  get  his  family  or  whether 
Margaret  had  to  take  the  responsibility  of  the  voyage 
alone,  we  do  not  know,  but  family  tradition  tells 
us  that  the  baby  was  six  months  old  when  she  was 
brought  to  New  York,  and  as  she  was  born  on  Sep- 
tember 10,  1784,  she  must  have  sailed  in  the  spring 
of  1785. 

John's  father  and  mother,  as  well  as  his  sister 
(or  sister-in-law)  Mrs.  Buchanan,  continued  to  live 
in  Glasgow  after  John  and  his  family  had  left.*  Mar- 
garet's father,  too,  Mr.  Scott,  was  living  when  she 
went  to  America,  also  a  half-brother  (probably  a  son 
of  Mrs.  Scott  by  a  former  marriage)  named  Andrew 
Thomson.  Mr.  Thomson  was  the  pastor  of  a  church 
at  Newton  of  Mearns,  Scotland,  and  a  married  man 
with  a  wife  and  a  large  family  of  children.  Thus 
both  of  our  travelers  left  ties  behind  them  in  the 
old  country. 

*  We  know  of  another  Taylor  in  Glasgow  at  this  period.  He  was  named 
Joseph  and  was  living  there  with  his  family  in  1797.  He  was  apparently 
a  relation  of  Andrew  Taylor  and  may  have  been  a  brother  of  the  Robert 
Taylor  who  deeded  his  half  of  Cairnoch  to  the  Blairs. 

A  John  Taylor  "  in  Cairnoch  "  married  an  Isabel  Hendry  later,  and  their 
three  sons,  John,  Andrew  and  Alexander,  were  born  in  1809,  1811  and  1814. 
It  is  possible  that  he  was  a  son  of  Robert,  especially  as  he  was  M  tenant-por- 
tioner  "  of  Cairnoch. 

These  suppositions  cannot  as  yet  be  proved. 

[14] 


CAIRNOCH-ON-CARRON-WATER 

Apparently  John  Taylor  did  not  bring  with  him 
a  Family  Bible,  for  although  he  afterwards  owned  two, 
in  which  the  entries  are  almost  identical,  the  earlier 
one  was  not  printed  until  1793.  But  long  years 
afterwards,  Margaret  (the  baby  of  the  voyage)  used 
to  tell  her  grandchildren  that  her  cradle  was  brought 
over  with  her,  as  was  also  her  father's  beautiful  tall 
clock — the  only  articles  of  furniture  that  she  men- 
tioned. The  roomy  cradle,  which  I  have  often  seen, 
was  a  solid  affair  made  of  the  handsomest  mahogany, 
with  a  big  wooden  hood  and  heavy  low  rockers.  In 
this,  Baby  Margaret  must  surely  have  been  com- 
fortable during  the  long  voyage  and,  in  fact,  for  many 
days  and  nights  after  she  reached  her  new  home. 
Several  succeeding  generations  of  babies  were  rocked 
in  this  cradle,  but  alas! — when  my  eldest  son,  "Mar- 
garet's" first  great-grandson,  made  his  appearance  and 
I  asked  for  the  cradle — lo  and  behold — in  a  fit  of 
generosity  she  had  given  it  away  to  some  poor  woman ! 

As  for  the  handsome  grandfather  clock,  "my  eight- 
day  clock,"  as  John  Taylor  called  it,  that  still  ticks 
on  as  it  did  in  his  day.  It  has  now  been  handed  down 
to  the  fourth  generation  and  stands  in  an  honored 
place  on  the  stairway  in  the  house  of  his  great-grandson, 
my  brother,  John  Herbert  Johnston. 


[15] 


II 

BLOOMINGDALE  FARM 

A  LTHOUGH  it  was  not  until  February,  1794,  that 
/  \  "John  Taylor  from  Glasgow,  in  North  Britain, 
jL.  JL.  Merchant,"  became  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States,  we  find  him  definitely  established  in  New 
York  ten  years  earlier.  Then  he  was  preparing  the 
comfortable  home  which  he  had  ready  for  his  wife 
and  baby  when  they  arrived  in  the  spring  of  1785. 
This  was  the  house,  No.  225  Queen  Street,  of 
which  we  have  already  heard.  In  a  store  on  the 
ground  floor  all  the  business  of  "John  Taylor  &  Co." 
was  transacted,  but  in  the  upper  part  of  the  house 
the  family  had  their  cozy  dwelling  place.  The  same 
arrangement  as  to  business  and  residence  continued 
for  forty-three  years — that  is,  until  1829,  when  the 
property  was  condemned  by  the  city.  About  1794 
the  name  of  the  street  was  changed  and  the  build- 
ing became  known  as  183  and  185  Pearl  Street. 
Even  then  it  was  a  large  building  29  feet  wide,  but 
it  was  further  enlarged  in  1804,  when  Mr.  Taylor 
bought  No.  187,  giving  him  a  total  frontage  of  forty- 
five  feet  and  a  depth  of  one  hundred  and  forty  feet. 

Naturally  the  first  thing  to  be  attended  to  after 
arrival  from  a  foreign  land  was  to  find  a  home,  but 

[16] 


BLOOMINGDALE    FARM 

immediately  after  that  it  was  the  duty  of  good  "kirk- 
folk"  to  find  the  kirk.  A  Scotch  Church  had  been 
established  in  New  York  in  1756  under  a  pastor  who 
came  direct  from  Scotland — the  Rev.  John  Mason. 
The  church  building  was  then  in  Cedar  Street*  and 
was  usually  spoken  of  as  the  Cedar  Street  Church. 
Of  this  the  young  people  forthwith  became  members. 

When  Margaret  reached  New  York  in  1785  the 
church  building  was  in  a  very  dilapidated  condition. 
It  was  only  a  year  and  a  half  since  the  close  of  the 
Revolutionary  War,  and  during  that  troublous  period 
the  Scotch  Church  had  been  occupied  and  greatly 
damaged  by  Hessian  troops,  so  that  the  congregation 
was  now  engaged  in  making  extensive  repairs.  We 
are  told  that  this  church  was  "a  genteel  stone  building" 
and  that  it  was  fifty -five  by  sixty -five  feet  in  size. 

The  Rev.  John  Mason  died  in  1792  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  son,  the  celebrated  John  M.  Mason, 
who  continued  to  minister  to  the  Scotch  Church  until 
1810.  At  that  date  a  new  Presbyterian  Church  was 
organized,  "the  Murray  Street  Church,"  and  John 
M.  Mason  was  "called"  to  be  its  first  pastor. 

John  Taylor  seems  to  have  felt  drawn  to  follow  the 
pastor  to  whom  he  was  so  devoted,  for  he  bought  a  pew 
in  the  new  edifice  and  also  one  of  the  burial  vaults 
which  had  been  constructed  under  it.  He  did  not, 
however,  really  waver  in  his  allegiance  to  the  church 

*  This  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  "  Cedar  Street  Presbyterian 
Church,"  which  was  a  little  later  presided  over  by  the  Rev.  John  B.  Romeyn. 
The  Scotch  Church  was  removed  from  Cedar  Street  in  1836  to  the  corner  of 
Grand  and  Crosby  Streets.  In  1853  it  was  again  removed  to  Fourteenth 
Street  near  Sixth  Avenue,  and  in  1893  to  the  corner  of  Central  Park  West 
and  95th  Street. 

[17] 


JOHN   TAYLOR,    OF   GLASGOW   AND    NEW   YORK 

of  his  first  choice;  for  thither  he  and  his  wife  went 
every  Sunday  and  there  his  children  were  taken  to 
be  baptized. 

As  all  the  early  records  kept  by  the  Session  of  the 
Scotch  Church  have  unfortunately  disappeared,  we 
cannot  depend  on  them  for  information,  but  the 
records  in  the  Taylor  Bible  give  us  many  family 
items,  including  the  birthdates  of  all  of  John  Taylor's 
children. 

Many  children  were  born  to  John  and  Margaret. 

Margaret  (in  Scotland)  in  1784. 

Elizabeth  (Eliza)  in  1786. 

Andrew  (named  after  John's  father)  in  1788. 

James  Scott  (named  after  Margaret's  father)  in  1789. 

John  Burnside  (named  after  John's  Glasgow  friend)  in  1791. 

Andrew  (the  Second)  in  1793. 

Janet  (Jessie)  (named  after  John's  mother)  in  1794. 

Robert  Lenox  (named  after  the  elder  Robert  Lenox)  in  1796. 

Scott  in  1797. 

Little  Andrew,  the  First,  lived  to  be  only  five  years 
old  and  then  he  died  of  "a  Dropsey  in  the  head,"  but 
another  son,  appearing  opportunely  only  four  days 
later,  was  immediately  given  his  brother's  name. 

With  all  these  children  the  parents  felt  the  ne- 
cessity of  having  some  country  home  where  they  could 
spend  their  summers,  especially  as  there  were  frequent 
epidemics  of  yellow  fever  or  cholera  in  town  during 
the  summer  time.  Therefore  on  October  16,  1796 
(when  Robert  Lenox  Taylor  was  a  baby),  the  father 
bought  a  farm  far  out  in  the  country  from  the  estate 
of  Samuel  Nicoll. 

This  farm  faced  on  the  Bloomingdale  Road  (Broad- 

[18] 


BLOOMINGDALE    FARM 

way)  and  had  a  rear  entrance  on  the  Bowery  Road 
(Middle  Road),  which  ran  parallel  with  the  Blooming- 
dale  Road  midway  between  the  streets  afterwards  laid 
out  and  called  Fifth  and  Madison  Avenues.  Bloom- 
ingdale  Farm  was  as  long  as  two  crosstown  blocks 
and  on  Fifth  Avenue  extended  from  39th  Street  to 
40th  Street,  a  plot  about  two  hundred  and  twenty- 
seven  feet  wide.  It  contained  nearly  ten  acres  and 
for  it  John  Taylor  paid  £1575.  The  map  of  the  prop- 
erty shows  that  it  was  just  south  of  the  land  where 
the  Publi  c  Library  now  stands. 

Here  the  Taylor  children  had  a  glorious  time. 
Their  mother,  too,  was  very  happy  in  her  country 
home.  She  wrote  in  1796  to  her  Scotch  half-brother, 
the  Rev.  Andrew  Thomson,  and  told  him  all  about  it. 
She  invited  him  and  his  wife  to  visit  her  at  Blooming- 
dale  the  first  time  he  had  a  holiday  and  added  that 
she  would  gladly  take  one  of  his  numerous  children, 
as  was  so  often  done  in  those  days,  and  bring  it  up 
with  her  own.  Then  in  her  letter  she  spoke  feelingly 
of  "the  distress  we  are  in  for  servants"! 

Margaret's  father,  Mr.  Scott,  had  that  year  (1796) 
gone  to  live  with  his  step-son,  Andrew  Thomson,  who 
in  answering  Margaret's  letter  said  of  the  old  gentle- 
man: "We  will  be  children  to  him  so  long  as  we  have 
anything  to  ourselves  ...  [he  is]  a  blessing  about  our 
house  .  .  .  and  appears  to  be  happy,  diverting  himself 
by  walking  about  and  reading."  Mr.  Thomson  went 
on  to  say  that  America  was  too  far  away  for  a  short 
visit  and  that  none  of  his  children  could  be  spared, 
especially  the  eldest  daughter,  named  Margaret,  who 
was  old  enough  to  be  a  great  help  to  her  mother. 

[19] 


JOHN   TAYLOR,    OF   GLASGOW   AND    NEW    YORK 

As  to  the  servant  question,  he  suggested  that 
Peggy  Crockett  would  be  willing  to  go  if  her  passage 
out  were  paid,  but  he  warned  Margaret  that  Peggy 
had  "a  temper  of  her  own  and  a  gay  spice  of  pride." 
I  wonder  if  Margaret  ever  sent  for  Peggy!  Probably 
not,  for  she  did  not  live  long  to  enjoy  Bloomingdale 
Farm. 

Her  youngest  child,  Scott,  was  but  two  weeks  old 
when  on  November  29,  1797,  Margaret  Scott,  probably 
worn  out  by  having  borne  nine  children  in  thirteen 
years,  "died  with  a  pleasant  countenance."  Her 
husband  made  entries  in  his  Family  Bible,  first  the 
death  of  "dear  Andrew  Taylor  the  First"  and  then 
that  of  the  "still  dearer  Margaret  Scott."  He  told  of 
her  illness,  "which  she  bore  with  truly  christian  resig- 
nation and  patience,"  and  added,  "She  knew  in  whom 
she  had  believed,  was  willing  to  die,  and  recommended 
resignation  to  the  Divine  Will." 

The  memorial  tablet  which  was  put  in  the  Cedar 
Street  Church  tells  us  that  "After  faithfully  discharg- 
ing the  duties  of  conjugal  and  maternal  affection  .  .  . 
the  bright  example  of  domestic  virtue  and  unaffected 
piety,  meekly  resigned  her  soul  .  .  .  into  the  hands 
of  her  Creator." 

Thus  Margaret  Scott  died  when  she  was  only  thirty- 
seven  years  old  and  left  all  her  children  motherless. 
No  wonder  that  their  father  soon  sought  another 
helpmeet.  Nineteen  months  later,  on  June  27,  1799, 
he  married  a  widow,  Jane  Davis  by  name.  She  brought 
with  her  to  Bloomingdale  an  only  child,  Thomas 
Davis,  who  was  then  a  boy  of  eight  but  only  lived 
until  his  seventeenth  year. 

[20] 


BLOOMINGDALE    FARM 

The  new  Mrs.  Taylor  turned  out  to  be  rather  an 
invalid  and  not  much  to  be  depended  on  for  the  care 
of  the  children.  In  many  of  John  Taylor's  letters  he 
speaks  of  her  as  ailing  and  in  one  he  says:  "Mrs. 
Taylor  has  been  worse  since  you  left  but  is  now  con- 
siderably better  tho  still  confined  to  Bed  and  likely 
to  recover  if  it  is  not  the  forerunner  of  some  other 
disorder."  As  a  consequence  of  her  stepmother's  ill 
health  young  Margaret  had  early  to  assume  the  respon- 
sibility of  her  younger  brothers  and  sisters,  and  through- 
out her  life  was  very  conscious  of  her  duties  as  eldest 
of  the  children. 

As  to  Bloomingdale  Farm,  I  have  many  interesting 
tales  to  tell  about  it.  It  was  a  long  way  from  the 
city,  about  four  miles  from  Wall  Street,  and  even  when 
the  rest  of  the  family  were  living  there,  the  father  was 
able  to  take  the  long  stage  ride  only  twice  a  week. 
That  was  when  both  houses  were  kept  open  in  summer 
and  when  the  family  lived,  as  Margaret  said,  "part 
in  town  and  part  in  country,"  but  after  1811  they 
closed  the  Pearl  Street  house  in  summer  and  all  took 
up  their  abode  at  Bloomingdale. 

When  the  long  drive  was  over  and  the  farm  was 
reached,  it  was  a  really  lovely  spot.  There  were  many 
fine  large  trees,  and  among  them,  near  the  present 
location  of  Sixth  Avenue,  stood  the  house,  painted 
white,  and  with  two-story-high  columns  across  the 
front.    Truly  a  gentleman's  country  seat. 

In  the  rear  of  the  farm  all  kinds  of  produce  were 
raised  and  sent  regularly  to  be  sold  at  Fulton  Market. 
Near  the  farm  gate  on  the  Bowery  Road  was  a  large 
stagnant  pool  covered  with  green  scum.     A  grandson 

[21] 


JOHN  TAYLOR,  OF  GLASGOW  AND  NEW  YORK 

of  Mr.  Taylor  told  me  that  he  once  rode  out  on  horse- 
back to  visit  his  grandfather  and  that  his  horse  shied 
violently  just  in  the  gateway  and  threw  him  headlong 
into  the  middle  of  the  green  pond.  This  the  youngster 
did  not  at  all  relish,  and  it  is  no  wonder  his  memory 
of  the  pond  remained  vivid. 

His  Aunt  Jessie  had  a  similar  experience  years 
before.  She  was  riding  with  a  party  of  friends  from 
Pearl  Street  to  Bloomingdale  Farm  when  her  horse 
fell  or  shied  and  tossed  her  into  this  pond.  She  wrote 
a  lively  and  amusing  letter  about  it  but  evidently 
enjoyed  her  ducking  not  a  whit  more  than  her  nephew 
did  his. 

Perhaps  it  was  the  presence  of  the  green  pond  that 
gave  them  all  chills  and  fever.  Not  quite  all  of  them, 
however,  for  although  John  Taylor  loved  to  lie  on  the 
dewy  grass,  he  never  contracted  this  troublesome  ill- 
ness. Margaret  suffered  greatly  from  it,  but  her  usual 
remedy  was  a  novel  one — a  counter-irritant,  as  it 
were.  When  she  felt  the  first  symptoms  of  a  chill, 
she  would  get  a  handbrush  and  wax  from  the  servant 
and  rub  the  big  dining  table  till  the  chill  passed  off. 
But  notwithstanding  the  chills,  Margaret  loved  the 
farm;  to  her  it  was  "Sweet  Bloomingdale." 

Her  father  also  was  very  fond  of  it  and  liked  to 
entertain  his  friends  there  and  it  is  said  that  he  always 
saw  to  it  personally  that  there  should  be  plenty  to 
eat  and  to  drink.  He  had  a  slave,  Anthony  Jay,  who 
always  helped  him  at  such  times.  John  Taylor  was 
devoted  to  "Tony"  and  in  one  of  his  early  wills,  that 
of  1815,  he  directed  his  executors  to  "make  free  and 
release    forever    from    servitude    my    Servant    Man 

[22] 


BLOOMINGDALE    FARM 

Anthony  Jay,  if  he  desire  it;  and  if  in  a  disabled  state, 
that  they  will  provide  a  support  for  him." 

Tony  had  some  of  the  weaknesses  of  his  race.  He 
had  been  granted,  as  was  usual,  various  perquisites, 
and  if  he  deemed  these  insufficient,  he  used  devious 
ways  to  augment  them.  One  night  at  Bloomingdale 
his  master  awoke  to  hear  the  crackling  of  burning  wood 
and  to  smell  smoke.  In  great  alarm  he  rushed  down 
stairs  to  find  Tony  stretched  comfortably  in  a  big 
arm  chair,  while  before  him  a  huge  wood  fire  blazed 
and  snapped.  "Tony,"  cried  Mr.  Taylor,  "what  are 
you  doing  here?"  "Laws,  Massa!"  answered  the 
startled  darkey,  "I  ain't  doin'  nothin',  only  makin' 
ashes" — wood  ashes  being  one  of  the  aforesaid  per- 
quisites ! 

Among  the  Taylor  relics  is  an  old  flute — a  very 
handsome  instrument,  London  made,  with  ivory  and 
silver  mountings.  This  was  presumably  Mr.  Taylor's 
personal  property,  for  among  his  books  are  a  number 
filled  with  hand-drawn  notes  for  flute  music;  even  in  his 
business  account  books  there  are  pages  covered  with 
flute  notes.  Anyone  contemplating  his  likenesses  will 
find  it  difficult  to  imagine  him  playing  the  flute! 

I  own  portraits  of  John  Taylor  and  Margaret 
Scott,  evidently  painted  at  the  same  date  and  there- 
fore at  some  time  before  her  death.  They  are  not 
over  twelve  by  fourteen  inches  in  size.  Though  the 
husband  was  only  forty-four  years  old  when  his  Mar- 
garet was  taken  from  him,  he  looks  as  here  represented 
like  a  much  older  man.  The  portrait  of  the  wife  shows 
a  rather  uninteresting  looking  woman,  but  her  daughter 
Margaret   always   loved   this   picture   of   her   mother 

[23] 


JOHN   TAYLOR,    OF   GLASGOW   AND    NEW    YORK 

and  kept  it  hanging  over  her  dressing  table  in  place 
of  a  mirror. 

Another  picture  of  her,  which  has  disappeared, 
was  thus  described  by  one  of  her  grand-daughters: 
"It  represented  a  young  woman  dressed  in  a  pale  green 
gown  with  ruffled  fichu.  She  had  a  very  fair  com- 
plexion, blue  eyes  and  thick  light  hair,  which  even  a 
hideous  heavy  cap,  tied  under  her  chin,  could  not 
conceal." 

Hardly  handsomer  than  the  earlier  one  is  the  later 
portrait  of  Mr.  Taylor  which  appears  as  a  frontis- 
piece. Of  this,  replicas  are  owned  by  several  of  his 
descendants.  None  of  these  paintings  are  real  works 
of  art.  Those  of  John  Taylor  show  him  to  have  been 
an  austere  looking  man.  In  fact,  one  of  his  descend- 
ants said  of  him:  "His  portrait  reminds  me  of  the 
description  of  the  schoolmaster  in  Gray's  'Elegy  ' — 
'A  man  severe  he  was,  and  strange  to  view.'  : 

He  was  undoubtedly  severe.  When  his  daughter 
Margaret  was  thinking  of  marrying,  she  wrote  in  her 
diary: — "What  would  I  give  for  a  kind  indulgent 
Mother  ...  to  my  father  I  dare  not  speak,  yet,  until 
I  know  his  will  I  scarce  dare  have  one  of  my  own  .  .  . 
If  I  ever  should  be  blessed  with  a  family,  may  I  teach 
them  to  love  as  well  as  fear  me." 

His  grandson,  Howard  Sherman,  told  me  a  char- 
acteristic story. 

"I  did  not  see  Grandpa  Taylor  very  often.  I  went 
around  to  his  house  in  Cliff  Street  perhaps  once  a 
month.  He  had  Scotch  blood  and  was  overbearing, 
and  I  did  not  take  a  fancy  to  him.     He  hit  me  once 

[24] 


BLOOMINGDALE    FARM 

with  a  gold-headed  cane  and  I  never  quite  forgave 
him  for  it.  I  had  been  sent  to  Bloomingdale  Farm  on 
account  of  the  cholera  which  was  then  raging  in  New 
York,  but  I  came  in  to  the  city  on  the  produce  wagon 
because  I  wanted  some  of  the  splendid  peaches  which 
grew  in  our  yard  at  51  Maiden  Lane.  I  was  inside 
the  gate  and  was  enjoying  a  peach  when  I  suddenly 
felt  some  one  hit  me  on  the  back  of  the  head  with  a 
cane  (a  pretty  hard  rap)  and  he  said,  4I  thought  you 
were  safe  at  Bloomingdale  Farm.'  He  whirled  me 
around  and  sent  me  back." 

Notwithstanding  his  severity  Mr.  Taylor  had  a 
great  deal  of  kindliness  and  a  certain  sense  of  humor, 
as  will  be  seen  in  some  of  his  letters  to  his  daughter 
Margaret  and  her  husband. 

Some  of  his  intimate  friends  lived  not  far  from  the 
farm.  There  was  Robert  Lenox;  his  city  house  was 
in  Pearl  Street  but  his  farm  was  at  the  "Five  Mile 
Stone"  (72d  Street  and  Fifth  Avenue),  only  a  mile 
and  a  half  away.  He  was  a  close  friend  of  John  Taylor, 
who,  as  we  know,  named  one  of  his  sons  for  the  elder 
Robert  Lenox.  There  were  also  John  and  Peter 
Goelet.  The  Goelets  lived  in  Pearl  Street  too,  and  the 
Goelet  farm,  at  what  is  now  19th  Street  and  Broad- 
way, was  not  far  from  Bloomingdale  Farm,  so  that 
the  Goelet  and  Taylor  children  were  constant  play- 
mates. The  Grinnells  and  Minturns  lived  in  Pearl 
Street  only  a  door  or  two  away  from  the  Taylors. 

John  Thomson,  William  Wallace  and  Lynde  Catlin 
were  intimate  enough  with  John  Taylor  to  be  men- 
tioned as  executors  of  the  unproved  will  of  1815.    There 

[25] 


JOHN  TAYLOR,  OF  GLASGOW  AND  NEW  YORK 

was  one  Scotch  name  in  this  list  of  executors,  Dr.  John 
Burnside,  son  of  the  early  Glasgow  friend,  who  had 
died  ere  this.  And  while  we  speak  of  Scotch  friends, 
we  must  not  forget  the  MacGregors.  They  were 
connected  with  Mr.  Taylor  both  by  friendship  and 
business,  first  in  Scotland,  then  in  Liverpool,  and  later 
in  New  York,  where  Peter  MacGregor  was  Margaret 
Taylor's  next  door  neighbor  after  her  marriage. 

All  this  time  I  have  told  you  but  little  of  John 
Taylor's  business.  In  the  New  York  directory  of  1784 
we  find  the  record  of  John  Taylor  &  Co.  at  225  Queen 
Street,  and  from  that  date  to  1829  all  his  commercial 
undertakings  were  conducted  from  this  address.  As 
we  know,  he  was  at  first  an  auctioneer,  and  it  was 
his  custom  to  have  "public  vendues"  of  his  "well 
known  goods"  on  the  last  Friday  of  each  month. 
These  vendues  continued  long  after  he  himself  ceased 
to  be  the  "Crier." 

He  was,  furthermore,  a  merchant  and  an  importer, 
largely  of  woolen  goods,  which  came  principally  from 
Manchester,  England,  where  he  had  interests  in  sev- 
eral factories.  There  were  then  fortnightly  packets 
sailing  from  Liverpool,  and  his  goods  were  forwarded 
by  "every  second  packet."  One  of  his  sons,  either 
James  Scott  or  Andrew,  usually  resided  at  Man- 
chester or  Liverpool  and  attended  to  the  purchase 
of  goods  and  to  their  shipment.  In  1812  or  possibly 
earlier  James  Scott  had  gone  for  this  purpose  to  live 
in  Manchester. 

During  the  War  of  1812  all  trans- Atlantic  com- 
merce was  of  course  at  a  standstill,  but  our  canny 

[26] 


BLOOMINGDALE    FARM 

Scot  knew  that  the  war  must  end  sometime,  and  when 
peace  was  declared,  he  already  had  large  stores  of 
goods  purchased  and  prepared  for  shipment.  He 
wrote  to  James  to  divide  these  goods,  for  additional 
safety,  and  to  "ship  by  first  two  good  American  ves- 
sels that  offer."  He  also  reminded  him  that  the  arti- 
cles to  be  forwarded  now  were  all  for  spring  sales 
and  that  winter  goods  should  be  ordered  without 
delay.  "But,"  said  he,  "I  do  suppose  that  the  markets 
will  be  very  much  overstocked,  in  that  case  I  mean 
to  purchase  here  rather  than  import  much." 

Mr.  Taylor's  son  Andrew  was  then  a  clerk  in  his 
father's  New  York  office,  and  it  was  in  February,  1815, 
immediately  after  the  close  of  the  war,  that  John 
Taylor  took  his  two  sons,  James  Scott  and  Andrew, 
into  partnership,  promising  to  give  each  of  them  one- 
third  of  his  profits  and  to  allow  each  one  to  do  a  com- 
mission business  on  his  own  account.  The  firm  name 
was  at  this  time  changed  to  "John  Taylor  &  Sons." 
Andrew  went  to  England  in  1818,  when  he  was  twenty- 
five  years  old,  to  make  his  home  there  and  attend  to 
the  affairs  of  the  firm,  and  his  brother,  James  Scott, 
returned  to  America. 

The  year  1830  found  the  firm  established  in  a  store 
which  John  Taylor  had  purchased  at  72  South  Street, 
and  his  business  was  conducted  there  until  the  time 
of  his  death  in  1833.  After  that  the  affairs  of  John 
Taylor  &  Sons  were  closed  up. 

It  was  one  of  his  peculiarities  to  charge  for  his 
merchandise  sixty  per  cent  over  the  foreign  cost.  This 
amount,  he  said,  represented  the  duty,  freight,  all 
expenses  and  his  own  profit.     So  invariable  was  this 

[27] 


JOHN   TAYLOR,    OF   GLASGOW   AND    NEW    YORK 

rule  that  he  came  to  be  known  among  his  business 
associates  as  "Old  saxty-per-cent."  Another  peculiar- 
ity was  that  he  never  insured  any  shipment — and  for 
nearly  forty  years  he  never  had  a  single  loss.  Then  the 
"Minerva"  went  down  with  twenty-two  of  his  cases 
on  board.  They  were  valued  at  $5,500  and  there  was 
no  insurance,  but  the  owner  was  undoubtedly  still 
satisfied  that  his  way  was  the  best,  as  perhaps  it  was. 
For  his  accounts  he  used  large  ledgers  of  beautiful 
hand-made  paper  watermarked  "J.  Taylor  1795." 
Many  of  these  are  still  in  existence  and  treasured  by 
his  descendants. 

Having  said  this  much  of  Mr.  Taylor's  business 
affairs,  we  must  return  to  family  matters.  The  earliest 
letter  of  his  known  to  be  in  existence  is  not  dated  but 
it  was  written  to  his  "Dear  Girls,"  Margaret  and 
Eliza,  while  they  were  in  Glasgow  visiting  their  grand- 
mother, old  Mrs.  Andrew  Taylor.  The  letter  must 
have  been  written  after  1797;  in  it  the  father  asked 
his  daughters  to  bring  him  a  "good  hot  press  Bible" 
(alluding  to  a  kind  of  binding  then  much  in  vogue), 
and  the  Bible  they  brought  was  bought  in  Glasgow 
and  had  been  printed  in  1797.  The  letter  was  prob- 
ably sent  in  the  summer  of  1808,  for  it  is  obvious 
that  Margaret  was  not  married  when  it  was  written 
— nor  was  she,  indeed,  until  June,  1809.  Besides  that, 
the  girls,  who  were  aged  twenty-four  and  twenty-two 
in  1808,  were  evidently  travelling  alone,  which  would 
hardly  have  been  possible  had  they  been  younger. 

It  is  interesting  to  learn  by  this  letter  that  Mr. 
Taylor  had  asked  Dr.  Burnside  to  purchase  a  "Piano 

[28] 


BLOOMINGDALE    FARM 

Forte"  in  Glasgow  for  his  girls.      Pianos  were  not  at 
all  usual  luxuries  in  those  early  days. 

From  John  Taylor's  letters  and  from  other  sources 
we  are  able  to  glean  a  few  contemporary  items  of 
family  news.  The  girls'  grandfather,  Andrew  Taylor, 
had  died  sometime  before  they  went  to  Glasgow. 
In  1797  the  Rev.  Mr.  Thomson  had  written  that  the 
old  gentleman  was  dying  of  "a  consumption,"  that 
he  had  a  bad  cough  and  was  much  attenuated.  So 
Andrew  Taylor  in  Lag  of  Fintry,  portioner  of  Cairnoch, 
had  evidently  been  gathered  to  his  fathers  before  the 
girls'  visit,  and  they  never  saw  their  grandfather. 
"Aunt  Buchanan,"  his  daughter,  was  still  living,  also 
"Uncle  Thomson"  (Margaret  Scott's  brother)  and  his 
wife.  One  of  the  Thomson  daughters  was  married  to 
a  Mr.  Wilson. 

Soon  after  the  "Dear  Girls"  returned  to  their  New 
York  home,  it  became  apparent  to  their  father  that 
the  family  circle  was  not  long  to  remain  unbroken. 

Margaret,  the  eldest  child,  was  the  first  to  marry. 
I  wish  we  knew  more  of  her  husband,  Rhesa  Howard, 
but  very  little  information  is  available,  save  that  he 
belonged  to  a  good  family,  that  the  wedding  took 
place  in  June,  1809,  presumably  at  Bloomingdale,  and 
that  the  marriage  was  a  happy  one.  Margaret's  hap- 
piness was,  alas,  of  short  duration,  for  Rhesa  How- 
ard developed  consumption  and  the  young  couple  were 
obliged  to  spend  their  winters  in  the  West  Indies 
on  his  account.  There  he  died,  probably  in  the  winter 
of  1812.  One  little  daughter  was  born  and  named 
Elizabeth,    after   Margaret's   favorite   sister,    but   she 

[29] 


JOHN   TAYLOR,    OF   GLASGOW    AND    NEW    YORK 

too  died,  apparently  about  the  same  time  as  her  father, 
and  Margaret  returned  to  her  father's  home  a  child- 
less widow.  Thus  was  ended  Margaret's  first  and 
short  lived  romance. 

Long  years  afterwards,  after  Margaret's  death,  a 
little  pink  muslin  frock  was  found  all  neatly  packed 
away  and  on  it  a  label  saying,  "My  little  Eliza  died 
in  this  dress."  At  the  same  time  a  miniature  of  a 
very  handsome  and  distinguished  looking  man  was 
discovered  in  the  secret  drawer  of  a  desk  which  Mar- 
garet always  kept  closed  and  locked.  Perhaps  the 
portrait  of  Rhesa  Howard. 

At  Bloomingdale  she  once  more  occupied  her 
position  as  housekeeper  and  again  assumed  the  loving 
care  and  oversight  of  her  brothers  and  sisters. 

In  1813  her  sister  Eliza  was  married.  The  "New 
York  Gazette"  September  22nd  contains  a  notice  of 
the  wedding. 

"  At  Bloomingdale  on  Monday  evening  last,  by  the  Rev.  Gar- 
diner Spring,  Mr.  Thaddeus  Sherman,  of  the  house  of  Sherman 
&  Norton,  New  Haven,  to  Miss  Eliza  Taylor,  daughter  of  John 
Taylor,  Esq.,  of  this  city." 

The  house  with  the  tall  white  columns  was  as  gay 
and  bright  that  night  as  candles  could  make  it,  but  to 
poor  Margaret  the  merrymaking  must  have  recalled 
sad  memories  of  her  own  so-recent  wedding. 

When  the  young  people  started  for  their  New 
Haven  home,  Janet*  Taylor  accompanied  them  and 
until  the  time  of  her  own  marriage  made  her  home 
with  Eliza  and  Thaddeus. 

*  Janet  always  signed  herself  Jennet  but  her  brothers  and  sisters  called 
her  Jessie. 

[30] 


BLOOMINGDALE    FARM 

This  was  not  for  very  long.  There  was  a  certain 
Charles  Sherman,  a  cousin  of  Thaddeus,  who  also  lived 
in  New  Haven  and  presented  many  attractions.  He 
was  a  handsome  young  man  with  the  title  of  Major, 
which  he  had  acquired  by  serving  in  the  Connecticut 
militia  during  the  War  of  1812.  What  was  even  more 
important,  he  was  a  grandson  of  the  Hon.  Roger 
Sherman,  who,  as  every  one  knows,  was  one  of  the 
signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Janet's 
brother  James  had  written  to  her  to  beware  of  the 
New  Haven  beaux,  but  the  letter  came  too  late.  Janet 
had  already  succumbed!  So  she  went  back  to  her 
father's  home  to  be  married. 

The  wedding  took  place  at  Blooiningdale  on  the 
morning  of  May  20,  1814,  and  the  bride  and  groom 
were  made  one  by  the  Rev.  Robert  B.  McLeod,  who 
had  recently  become  pastor  of  the  Cedar  Street  Church. 
After  the  ceremony,  the  wedding  party  set  off  (as 
was  the  custom  then)  for  the  home  of  the  newly  wedded 
pair.  This  party  comprised  the  bride  and  groom,  the 
bridesmaid,  Jennet  Wilson  (the  bride's  Scotch  cousin) 
and  the  groomsman,  Andrew  Taylor  (the  bride's 
brother).  They  all  went  together,  either  on  horseback 
or  in  a  carriage,  and  when  Janet  reached  New  Haven, 
she  found  her  new  home  furnished  and  ready  for  her. 

It  was  not  fully  furnished,  however,  until  she 
received  the  wedding  present  which  her  brother  James 
sent  to  her  from  England.  When  it  arrived  it  proved 
to  be  a  very  handsome  Hepplewhite  sideboard  made 
of  the  finest  mahogany  with  beautiful  inlay.  This 
sideboard,  which  belonged  at  one  time  to  Mrs.  Charles 
Sherman's  daughter  Janet,  has  after  some  wandering 

[31] 


JOHN   TAYLOR,    OF   GLASGOW   AND    NEW   YORK 

been  given  to  me,  and  it  is  needless  to  say  that  I 
treasure  it. 

The  marriage  of  her  two  sisters  left  Margaret  very 
much  alone  at  the  farm — in  fact,  she  and  Andrew  were 
usually  the  only  children  living  at  home.  James 
Scott,  her  eldest  brother,  had  gone  to  live  in  Man- 
chester. After  that  her  second  brother,  John  Burn- 
side,  had  become  restive  and  had  wished  to  go  to  sea. 
This  is  not  surprising  when  we  think  of  the  narrowness 
of  a  young  man's  life  at  home  then  and  realize  that 
the  only  way  for  an  adventurous  young  fellow  to  see 
the  world  was  for  him  to  follow  the  sea.  At  some 
date  prior  to  1813  John  had  evidently  had  words  with 
his  father  on  the  subject  and,  not  having  received  the 
desired  permission,  had  run  away  from  home.  In 
March,  1813,  Margaret  wrote  to  James  that  they  had 
heard  nothing  of  John  for  a  long  time  and  said  that 
she  was  very  uneasy  about  him.  She  alluded  to  his 
"corrupt  heart"  and  hoped  that  "God  would  open 
his  eyes  to  see  his  errors  and  restore  him  to  his  friends." 
Yet  the  poor  boy  had  probably  been  only  wayward 
and,  as  we  shall  see  later,  he  paid  dearly  for  his  folly. 

It  was  in  1812  that  Margaret's  third  brother, 
Robert,  became  a  sailor.  He  was  a  handsome  young 
fellow,  one  of  the  two  youngest  brothers,  and  Mar- 
garet had  always  made  rather  a  pet  of  him.  She 
embroidered  wonderful  waistcoats  for  him  and  saw 
that  his  long  silk  stockings  never  developed  "ladders," 
for  Robert  was  in  those  days  somewhat  of  a  dandy 
and  could  not  endure  "ladders."  Now  he  wanted  to 
sail  before  the  mast!  Margaret  tried  her  best  to 
dissuade  him,  but  in  vain.   All  she  could  get  from  him 

[32] 


BLOOMINGDALE    FARM 

was  a  promise  that  if  he  did  not  enjoy  his  first  voyage 
he  would  give  up  all  thoughts  of  following  the  sea 
and  settle  down  at  home.  Then  Robert  sailed  for 
Lisbon  when  he  was  only  sixteen  years  old!  He  re- 
turned before  long,  more  than  ever  infatuated  with  a 
sailor's  life.  Poor  Margaret  wrote  to  James  about  it 
and  said  that  her  father,  discouraged  probably  by  his 
lack  of  success  in  disciplining  John,  had  declared, 
"  Robert  must  follow  his  own  inclination,"  and  Mar- 
garet added,  "Indeed  it  would  be  no  use  to  restrain 
him,  for  a  boy  who  has  once  taken  a  notion  for  the 
sea  is  seldom  to  be  brought  to  think  of  any  other 
business." 

Nor  was  this  all.  The  next  year  Scott,  John  Tay- 
lor's youngest  child,  sailed  away  when  he  too  was  but 
sixteen,  and  Janet  commented,  "What  a  family  of 
Sailors!  It  will  be  well  if  the  daughters  do  not  turn 
sailoresses." 

The  following  winter,  1814,  Margaret,  worrying 
as  ever  about  her  brother  John,  was  hoping  that  he 
might  yet  "return  to  the  path  of  duty,"  but  poor 
John  was  destined  never  again  to  see  family  or  home. 
The  War  of  1812  was  still  in  progress  and  he  was 
even  then  confined  on  an  English  prison  ship!  He 
wrote  on  March  13,  1814,  to  Alexander  MacGregor, 
his  father's  agent  at  Liverpool,  telling  him  of  his 
plight. 

He  had  embarked  as  a  sailor  on  the  merchant 
ship,  "Fair  American,"  bound  from  Boston  to  Bor- 
deaux. When  the  ship  was  within  thirty  miles  of  its 
destination,  it  was  captured  by  the  British,  and  al- 
though bound  on  a  peaceable  errand,   all  on  board 

[33] 


JOHN  TAYLOR,  OF  GLASGOW  AND  NEW  YORK 

were  removed  to  Plymouth,  Devonshire,  where  they 
were,  as  prisoners  of  war,  placed  on  board  an  old 
French  line-of -battle  ship  named  "Le  Brave."  This 
was  one  of  two  captured  ships  which,  no  longer  fit  for 
active  service,  lay  at  anchor  off  Plymouth  and  were 
used  as  prison  ships. 

Each  man  was  given  by  way  of  equipment  a  ham- 
mock, a  thin  bed  sack  containing  three  or  four  pounds 
of  flock,  or  chopped  rags,  and  a  thin  coarse  blanket. 
These,  he  was  told,  must  last  him  for  a  year  and  a 
half. 

One  of  John  Taylor's  fellow-prisoners,  Charles 
Andrews,  has  left  us  a  description  of  the  clothes  given 
to  these  poor  wretches. 

"By  the  regulations,  the  prisoners  were  to  receive 
for  clothing  every  eighteen  months,  one  yellow  round- 
about jacket,  one  pair  of  pantaloons,  and  a  waist- 
coat, also  a  woollen  cap,  .  .  .  one  pair  of  shoes  and 
one  shirt,  every  nine  months  .  .  . 

"The  jacket  was  not  large  enough  to  meet  around 
the  smallest  of  us,  although  reduced  to  mere  skeletons 
by  such  continued  fasting;  the  sleeves  came  about 
half  way  down  the  arm,  and  the  hand  stuck  out  like 
a  spade;  the  waistcoat  was  short;  it  would  not  meet 
before,  nor  down  to  the  pantaloons;  thus  leaving  a 
space  of  three  or  four  inches ;  the  pantaloons  which  were 
as  tight  as  our  skin  itself,  came  down  to  the  middle 
of  the  shin.  The  shoes,  which  formed  the  pedestal 
for  all  the  ornaments  above,  were  made  of  list,  inter- 
woven and  fastened  to  pieces  of  wood  an  inch  and  a 
half  thick.     The  figure  we  made  in  this  dress  was  no 


common  one." 


[34] 


BLOOMINGDALE    FARM 

John  was  one  of  the  prisoners  who  received  this 
outfit.  In  his  letter  to  Mr.  MacGregor  he  asked  that 
a  small  sum  of  money  should  be  advanced  to  him  on 
his  father's  account.  "Prisoner's  allowance,"  said 
he,  "is  but  small  and  yet  with  the  assistance  of  a 
trifling  sum  of  money  I  could  make  myself  tolerably 
comfortable."  He  also  asked  that  if  war  conditions 
permitted,  his  father  should  be  informed  of  his  pre- 
dicament. 

Mr.  MacGregor  reported  this  to  James,  then 
living  in  Manchester,  and  he  immediately  sent  a 
letter  to  John  enclosing  a  £5  bank  note.  After  a  time 
John  received  the  money  and  wrote  to  thank  his 
brother  as  follows: 

"I  had  the  misfortune  when  captured  to  be  de- 
prived of  my  clothing  and  am  now  almost  destitute  .  .  . 
Since  receiving  the  money  you  so  kindly  sent  to  me 
I  have  been  enabled  to  equip  myself  with  clothes 
and  to  attend  a  school  kept  by  an  American  for  the 
revising  of  my  navigation  .  .  .  There  are  upwards  of 
800  French  and  American  prisoners  on  board  of  this 
ship,  500  of  whom  are  in  the  same  apartment  with 
myself,  where  the  air  is  so  confined  as  to  be  rendered 
unhealthful  .  .  .  We  understand  that  all  the  French 
prisoners  will  soon  be  sent  away,  which  will  render 
our  imprisonment  far  more  pleasant,  as  we  shall  have 
a  more  commodious  part  of  the  ship." 

The  ships  were  indeed  frightfully  crowded  and 
the  condition  of  the  prisoners  was  such  that  they 
frequently  threatened  to  escape.  It  was  probably 
for  this  reason  that  it  was  decided  to  send  them  to 

[35] 


JOHN  TAYLOR,  OF  GLASGOW  AND  NEW  YORK 

Dartmoor — a  prison  whose  very  name  filled  the  hearer 
with  horror. 

Dartmoor  Prison  was  situated  two  thousand  feet 
above  the  sea  on  an  easterly  slope  and  in  the  middle 
of  a  bleak  moor.  As  it  was  about  on  a  level  with  the 
clouds,  the  rain  was  well  nigh  incessant;  the  rough 
stone  walls  constantly  dripped  from  dampness,  and 
water  stood  in  pools  on  the  stone  or  dirt  floor. 

In  Prison  No.  4  were  confined  the  French  male- 
factors— those  who  had  committed  crimes  such  as 
murder,  robbery  of  other  prisoners,  etc.  Among  these 
criminals  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  wretched  Amer- 
icans, including  John  Burnside  Taylor,  were  placed. 
The  hammocks  hung  one  above  the  other  four  or 
five  deep  and  there  was  no  other  furniture  whatsoever. 

About  the  time  when  John  arrived  at  Dartmoor, 
the  United  States  Agent  wrote  to  his  imprisoned 
"fellow-citizens"  that  the  Government  had  decided 
to  allow  them  each  one  penny  half-penny  per  day 
for  soap  and  tobacco.  This,  as  Charles  Andrews  said? 
would  procure  three  chews  of  tobacco.  The  recipients 
were  delighted,  although,  as  they  said,  "Without 
clothes  we  do  not  need  soap." 

John  wrote  to  his  brother  James  to  tell  him  of  his 
new  abode. 

"Since  writing  to  you  all  the  American  Prisoners 
have  been  moved  to  this  place  which  must  be  an 
excuse  for  my  not  answering  yours  of  the  19th  of 
April  which  came  safe  to  hand.  You  can  hardly  be- 
lieve what  a  cold  place  this  is  Situated  in  the  Midle 
of  a  Moor  exactly  like  the  place  where  we  used  to 

[36] 


BLOOMINGDALE    FARM 

Fish  in  the  Mearns  of  Scotland,  nothing  but  cold  Stone 
Walls  and  a  damp  earth  Floor.  It  looks  more  like  a 
Stable  than  for  people  to  live  in.  I  must  contrive 
some  way  to  get  this  letter  out  of  the  gate  for  if  it 
was  seen  by  any  one  belonging  to  the  prison  they  would 
not  let  it  pass  your  letters  or  any  thing  you  may  send 
to  me  will  come  safe  altho  they  will  be  opened  and 
examined  you  must  be  very  particular  in  not  writing 
any  thing  about  the  prison.  Money  in  letters  always 
comes  safe  altho  it  takes  some  time  before  they  reach 
this.  I  wish  Dear  James  if  convenient  you  would 
send  me  a  little  more  money,  as  it  is  so  very  cold 
here  that  I  have  been  obliged  to  lay  out  all  my  Money 
in  clothing  &  Bedding." 

John  ended  this  letter  with  the  significant  and 
almost  prophetic  words,  "I  do  not  know  what  we 
shall  do  if  they  keep  us  here  another  winter." 

In  October  rumors  of  peace  were  rife  and  all  was 
excitement,  yet  days  and  days  went  by  and  nothing 
definite  was  heard.  Meanwhile  the  weather  became 
ever  colder  and  the  sufferings  of  the  almost  naked 
prisoners  were  very  great.  Added  to  their  other  woes, 
smallpox  and  measles  broke  out,  which  largely  increased 
the  mortality.  This  was  more  than  human  patience 
could  bear  and  many  Americans  who  until  then  had 
stood  firm  joined  the  British  ranks. 

From  time  to  time  James  sent  John  letters  and 
money,  which  were  always  received  though  after 
long  delays.  At  the  end  of  October  the  prisoner  asked 
his  brother  for  warm  clothing,  and  if  we  remember 
the   cold   damp   winds   of   Dartmoor,    the   ever   open 

[37] 


JOHN   TAYLOR,    OF    GLASGOW   AND   NEW   YORK 

windows  and  the  lack  of  fires,  we  cannot  think  the 
request  excessive. 

1  Pea  jacket  or  Great  coat 

2  suits  Jacket  trousers  and  waistcoat 
2  pairs  worsted  stockings 

2  striped  cotton  shirts 
2  red  flannel  shirts 
2  Guernsey  Frocks 
2  pair  shoes 

This  list  came  in  the  last  letter  extant  from  the 
poor  young  fellow,  and  we  cannot  tell  if  the  Guernsey 
Frocks  or  the  other  articles  ever  came  to  him.  It 
took  a  long  time  for  such  things  to  reach  the  prison, 
the  distress  was  very  present;  he  probably  despaired 
of  ever  receiving  the  clothes  for  which  he  had  hoped 
and  without  them  felt  unable  to  face  the  suffering  of 
the  coming  winter.  Peace  seemed  as  far  off  as  ever 
and  there  was  no  talk  of  an  exchange  of  prisoners. 

Whatever  the  reason,  on  December  1,  1814,  poor 
John  Burnside  Taylor,  aged  only  twenty-three,  hanged 
himself  in  Dartmoor  Prison.  Charles  Andrews  tells 
us  of  his  death.* 

"A  native  of  New  York  by  the  name  of  John 
Taylor  put  an  end  to  his  life  on  the  first  of  this 
month  .  .  .  We  know  of  no  other  cause  than  that 
despair  had  given  him  less  courage  to  live  than  to 
die  .  .  . 

"I  procured  a  large  slate,  and  engraved  on  it  the 
following  inscription,  which  I  put  at  the  head  of  his 
grave  ...  on  the  moor. 

*  "The    Prisoners'    Memoirs    of    Dartmoor    Prison.      Compiled    from    the 
Journal  of  Charles  Andrews.     1815." 

[38] 


BLOOMINGDALE    FARM 
"  '  HERE    LIES 

JOHN  TAYLOR, 

A  NATIVE  CITIZEN  OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK, 
WHO  COMMITTED  SUICIDE,  BY  HANGING  HIM- 
SELF IN  PRISON  NO.  5,  ON  THE  EVENING 
OF  THE  FIRST  OF  DECEMBER,  1814.'  ' 

And  there  on  the  bleak  Devon  moor  back  of  the 
prison  enclosure  "the  generous  youth"  lies  to  this  day. 

It  was  a  pity  that  he  could  not  have  endured 
a  little  longer.  Only  twenty-eight  days  after  his 
death  the  peace  treaty  was  signed  at  Ghent,  but  too 
late  to  save  poor  John  Burnside  Taylor! 

Mr.  MacGregor  sent  James  a  full  account  of  the 
tragedy  but  advised  him  to  conceal  the  details  from 
his  father,  who  perhaps  never  knew  the  whole  truth. 

I  have  written  thus  fully  about  John's  imprison- 
ment because  his  life  was  so  tragic  and  because  so 
little  else  is  known  about  him. 

On  February  11,  1815,  the  news  of  peace  reached 
New  York  and  there  was  great  rejoicing  in  the  city. 
A  wonderful  illumination  was  planned  for  February 
21st,  and  on  that  night  everybody's  windows,  those 
at  185  Pearl  Street  as  well  as  the  rest,  blazed  with 
candles. 

As  the  ending  of  the  war  meant  new  prosperity, 
John  Taylor  wrote  immediately  to  James  to  send 
over  all  reserves  of  merchandise  and  it  was  at  this 
time  that  he  took  his  sons  James  and  Andrew  into 
partnership. 

[39] 


JOHN   TAYLOR,    OF   GLASGOW   AND    NEW   YORK 

A  letter  of  December,  1815,  shows  that  John  Taylor 
and  his  wife  Jane  were  just  about  to  sail  for  England. 
Mr.  Taylor  was  to  make  a  long  desired  visit  to  James 
in  Manchester  and  afterwards  to  his  family  in  Scot- 
land. When  he  reached  Glasgow  in  May,  he  found 
all  the  family  in  much  distress;  his  brother-in-law, 
the  Rev.  Andrew  Thomson,  was  very  ill,  in  fact,  in 
a  dying  condition.  As  we  have  already  heard,  "Uncle 
Thomson"  had  a  wife  and  a  large  family  of  children, 
who  were  now  about  to  be  left  fatherless.  John  Taylor 
had  arrived  very  opportunely  and  was  no  doubt  able 
to  be  of  much  assistance.  The  minister  of  a  country 
parish  in  Scotland  could  not  have  laid  by  much,  and 
financially,  as  well  as  in  other  ways,  his  brother-in-law 
probably  was  helpful. 

Personal  affairs  had  evidently  brought  Mr.  Taylor 
to  Glasgow.  His  father,  Andrew  Taylor,  had  been 
dead  for  some  years.  John  Burnside,  too,  the  old 
friend,  had  passed  away.  It  had  therefore  become 
necessary  for  our  New  York  merchant  to  return  to 
Scotland  and  attend  to  several  important  matters. 

Cairnoch,  which  he  had  deeded  to  the  elder  John 
Burnside  before  leaving  Glasgow  in  1784,  had  now 
descended  to  the  son  and  heir,  Dr.  John  Burnside, 
a  Glasgow  surgeon.  The  latter  on  November  2,  1815, 
"made  disposition  of  it"  to  John  Taylor,  who  again 
took  possession  ("sasine")  of  Cairnoch  on  January 
11,  1816. 

There  is  no  mention  in  the  letters  of  John  Taylor's 
return  to  New  York  but  it  is  evident  that  he  was  once 
more  at  Bloomingdale  Farm  in  the  summer  of  1817. 
During  his  absence  Margaret  had  often  been  alone 

[40] 


BLOOMINGDALE    FARM 

at  home  or  with  only  Andrew  as  companion,  but  some- 
times both  her  sisters  came  to  visit  her,  Eliza  with 
two  sons  and  Jessie  with  her  little  daughter,  Margaret 
Scott.  Then,  as  the  fond  aunt  said,  it  was  a  "lively 
house."    Margaret  was  nevertheless  lonely! 

She  longed  for  a  little  child  to  take  the  place  of 
the  one  she  had  lost.  In  the  summer  of  1814  a  son, 
John  Taylor  Sherman,  had  been  born  to  her  sister 
Eliza.  September,  1815,  had  brought  another  little 
boy,  whom  Eliza  named  Rhesa  Howard  after  Mar- 
garet's husband.  She  then  allowed  Margaret  to  take 
the  elder  child  and  bring  him  up  as  her  own,  which  was 
evidently  a  keen  pleasure  to  the  young  widow. 

But  before  this  time  a  new  actor  in  our  drama 
had  appeared  on  the  scene — a  young  Scotchman 
named  John  Johnston.  He  had  arrived  in  New  York 
in  1804  and  had  become  a  clerk  in  the  counting  house 
of  John  Taylor's  friend,  James  Lenox.  Being  a  fellow- 
merchant  as  well  as  a  fellow-countryman,  he  and  Mr. 
Taylor  speedily  became  friends,  and  when  John  John- 
ston was  compelled  to  leave  the  United  States  in  1813 
because  he  had  not  yet  been  naturalized  and  was 
therefore  considered  an  "alien  enemy,"  he  took  with 
him  a  letter  from  John  Taylor  to  his  son  James  in 
England,  asking  the  latter  to  help  the  bearer  in  every 
way  and  to  accord  him  his  "warmest  friendship." 
We  shall  now  see  that  James  was  not  the  only  member 
of  the  family  to  treat  the  young  Scotchman  with 
cordiality.  He  returned  to  New  York  in  1815  and 
soon  became  very  devoted  in  his  attentions  to  Mar- 
garet Howard,  finally  asking  her  to  marry  him. 

That  she  was  in  love  with  him  is  perfectly  evident 

[41] 


JOHN    TAYLOR,    OF   GLASGOW   AND    NEW   YORK 

from  her  diary.  But — she  hesitated!  What  would 
her  father  say?  Although  she  had  been  married  once 
and  was  now  thirty-three  years  old,  she  dared  not 
give  an  affirmative  answer  till  she  knew  his  wishes. 
On  June  17,  1817,  the  family  moved  to  Bloomingdale 
— "Sweet  Bloomingdale,"  as  Margaret  called  it — and 
a  week  later  she  said  "Yes."  In  her  diary  she  wrote: 
"My  father  has  given  his  consent  and  cheerfully  too, 
as  I  can  judge  from  his  behavior." 

Then  she  did  a  strange  thing — she  tore  out  of  her 
diary  all  the  pages  except  the  last  one,  the  one  which 
tells  of  John  Johnston's  courtship.  She  gave  up  all 
intercourse  with  Rhesa  Howard's  family,  and,  even 
in  after  years,  she  never  tolerated  an  allusion  to  her 
little  Eliza.  She  wiped  out,  as  it  were,  all  memories 
connected  with  her  first  marriage. 

On  September  2,  1817,  John  Johnston  and  Margaret 
Taylor  Howard  were  married  at  Bloomingdale  Farm 
and  drove  off  to  Hartford  for  their  wedding  trip.  When 
they  returned,  they  made  their  home  at  16  Greenwich 
Street,  a  house  which  Mr.  Johnston  had  rented  for 
his  bride.  It  was  then  considered  a  very  pretty  house 
and  though  now  somewhat  dilapidated,  it  still  shows 
pretty  details.  Naturally  it  is  not  as  delightful  as  it 
was  in  1817,  when  its  garden  ran  down  to  the  river 
and  furnished  a  fascinating  playground  for  little 
John  Taylor  Sherman,  who  still  made  his  home  with 
Margaret. 

In  the  spring  of  1818  they  went  to  Scotland  to 
visit  Margaret's  earliest  home  and  to  see  her  relatives 
in  Glasgow.  Her  Grandmother  Taylor  had  evidently 
died   but   the   young   people    immediately    called    on 

[42] 


BLOOMINGDALE    FARM 

"Aunt  Buchanan,"  and  the  next  day  went  to  Newton 
of  Mearns  to  see  the  Thomsons.  They  may  have 
distributed  among  these  relatives  some  of  the  Virginia 
hams  which  they  had  brought  over  as  gifts,  and  which 
were  probably  an  unknown  luxury  in  Scotland. 

Margaret  had  invited  her  brother  Andrew  to  meet 
them  in  Scotland  and  make  "a  tour"  with  them.  He 
joined  them  in  Glasgow,  where  he  and  John  Johnston 
fitted  themselves  out  with  fishing  tackle.  Presumably 
they  did  not  always  have  good  luck,  for  Margaret 
reported  on  one  occasion  that  "Andrew  pretended  he 
had  had  a  glorious  nibble." 

The  Johnstons  remained  in  Scotland  some  months 
and  it  was  during  this  period  that  John  Johnston  and 
Dr.  John  Burnside  paid  the  visit  to  Cairnoch  of 
which  we  have  already  heard.  Meanwhile  Mar- 
garet's father  wrote  to  her  from  time  to  time,  sent 
her  various  drafts  when  he  thought  her  funds  were 
low,  and  always  gave  her  news  of  her  little  John. 

In  April  they  all  reached  Liverpool  and  there  had 
the  pleasure  of  meeting  Captain  Robert  L.  Taylor. 
He  and  his  ship,  the  "Atlantic,"  sailed  ten  days  before 
the  Johnstons,  and  he  apparently  had  boasted  regard- 
ing the  speed  of  his  vessel.  Our  young  couple  had  a 
pleasant  voyage  on  the  "Albion,"  except  that  each 
passenger  was  allowed  only  a  measured  pint  of  water 
a  day  for  washing  purposes.  When  near  the  end  of 
the  voyage  they  "saw  a  sail  resembling  the  'Atlantic' 
ahead" — and  so  it  turned  out  to  be!  She  hove  to 
and  Captain  Taylor  came  on  board,  much  mortified 
to  find  that  he  had  been  so  badly  outsailed.  The 
"Albion"  sent  over  wine  and  sugar  and  received  in 

[43] 


JOHN  TAYLOR,  OF  GLASGOW  AND  NEW  YORK 

exchange  much  needed  candles.  Soon  afterward  they 
stood  in  toward  Gay's  Head  to  land  a  passenger! 

When  in  June,  1819,  John  and  Margaret  reached 
New  York,  they  again  made  their  home  in  Greenwich 
Street,  and  there  in  April,  1820,  Margaret's  eldest  son 
was  born.  I  must  not  be  led  on  indefinitely  to  tell  of 
Margaret,  for  after  all,  this  is  the  story  of  John  Taylor, 
and  details  concerning  his  children  are  given  primarily 
because  of  their  connection  with  him  and  in  order 
to  make  the  picture  of  his  home  life  more  vivid. 

As  he  prospered  in  business  affairs  he  made  various 
purchases  of  real  estate.  As  I  have  said,  he  lived 
during  his  earliest  years  in  New  York  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  Fly  Market  near  the  foot  of  Maiden  Lane, 
and  he  seems  to  have  purchased  property  in  that 
neighborhood.  In  the  early  morning  of  December  9, 
1796,  a  terrible  fire  broke  out  in  this  vicinity  and  con- 
tinued with  its  "impetuous  rage"  to  "bafHe  all  human 
skill"  until  forty  buildings  on  or  near  Front  Street 
between  the  lower  end  of  Wall  Street  and  Maiden  Lane 
had  been  consumed.  It  is  rather  interesting  to  notice 
that  of  all  these  forty  buildings,  only  one  was  built 
of  brick.  Three  of  the  houses  destroyed  are  said  to 
have  belonged  to  John  Taylor. 

As  early  as  1784  his  home  was  at  225  Queen  Street 
(known  later  as  183  and  185  Pearl  Street)  but  he  does 
not  seem  to  have  received  a  deed  for  the  property 
until  1795.  In  1804  he  bought  the  adjoining  lot,  No. 
187,  but,  according  to  a  custom  which  he  followed 
in  other  instances,  he  had  the  deed  made  out  to  his 
daughter  Elizabeth  and  his  sons  Robert  and  Scott. 
In  1829  the  city  decided  to  open  a  new  thoroughfare, 

[44] 


BLOOMINGDALE   FARM 

Cedar  Street,  between  Pearl  and  William  Streets, 
and  this  new  highway  exactly  covered  the  site  of  Mr. 
Taylor's  three  lots.  For  No.  187  the  three  children 
received  from  the  city  $20,500. 

His  summer  home,  Bloomingdale  Farm,  was  ac- 
quired in  1796. 

In  1805  he  bought  a  house  in  Maiden  Lane,  No.  51 
(deed  taken  in  the  name  of  his  five  sons)  and  for  a 
number  of  years  he  gave  the  use  of  it  to  his  daughter 
Eliza  and  her  family. 

In  addition  he  was  the  possessor  of  a  building  at 
12  Warren  Street  and  a  large  store  at  72  South  Street, 
to  which  he  moved  his  business  in  1829.  (The  deed 
for  this  store  was  taken  in  the  names  of  his  sons  James, 
John  and  Andrew.)  It  was  in  the  same  year  that  he 
bought  a  house  and  stable  at  23  Cliff  Street. 

We  know  that  he  owned,  besides,  two  pieces  of 
property  at  Suffield,  Conn.  Here  he  purchased  a 
well  stocked  farm  with  a  house  and  household  fur- 
niture, which  he  let  his  daughter  Janet  and  her  family 
occupy.  In  the  same  way  he  allowed  his  son  Scott 
the  use  of  a  farm  and  mills  which  he  owned  near 
Suffield. 

The  Suffield  home  of  Charles  and  Janet  Sherman 
was  the  rallying  place  for  all  the  nephews  and  nieces. 
My  father  (Margaret's  eldest  son)  left  many  records  of 
his  good  times  there,  but  the  most  charming  description 
of  it  was  written  by  Thaddeus,  son  of  Janet's  sister 
Eliza: 

"Their  home  was  heaven  upon  earth.  Photo- 
graphed on  my  heart  is  the  picture  of  the  dear  old 

[45] 


JOHN   TAYLOR,    OF   GLASGOW  AND   NEW   YORK 

Kitchen,  that,  with  its  homely  belongings,  ever  held 
for  us  a  hearty  welcome.  But  the  sweetest  memories 
are  of  the  dear  Aunty,  who  trod  that  old  kitchen  floor 
— usually  with  her  hands  full  of  dough,  for  in  those 
days  doughnuts  and  milk  were  the  chief  of  our  diet. 

"Dear  blessed  Aunty,  with  her  warm  loving  nature, 
her  heart  full  of  sunshine,  her  heavenly  smile  and  lovely 
silvering  hair,  and  a  face  that  was  ever  a  benediction. 
If  there  is  any  good  in  us  all,  it  came  not  so  much  from 
the  good  old  Dominie's  preaching,  as  from  our  lovely 
little  Aunty's  practicing. 

"In  the  winter,  farm  labor  being  suspended,  we  had 
always  the  merriest  time  of  all  the  year.  Then  was  the 
time  for  weddings,  the  time  for  social  enjoyments,  the 
time  for  skates  and  merry  sleigh  bells,  the  time  for  the 
quilting  bee,  the  apple,  nut  and  husking  frolics  and  for 
a  thousand  other  country  delights. 

"In  those  good  old  winter  evenings,  prohibition  was 
unknown  and  not  only  cider,  but  spiced  rum  was  very 
freely  discussed  .  .  .  and  speaking  of  cider  and  rum, 
how  vividly  I  recall  that  when  our  consistent  Puritan 
uncle  (who  then  had  the  finest  orchard  in  all  Connecticut) 
became  a  strong  temperance  advocate,  he  destroyed  his 
cider-mill,  and  cut  down  his  splendid  apple  trees,  lest 
he  should  be  the  means  of  making  his  neighbor  to 
offend." 

Family  tradition  says  that  Mrs.  Sherman  made  all 
the  bread  and  cake  with  her  own  hands,  and  that  when 
the  house  was  very  full,  she  often  used  up  a  barrel  of 
flour  in  two  weeks! 

Her  sister  Eliza  lived  at  51  Maiden  Lane  from  1822 

[46] 


BLOOMINGDALE    FARM 

until  the  time  of  the  "Great  Fire"  in  1835.  Then 
Thaddeus  Sherman's  linen  warehouses  were  destroyed 
and  after  such  a  serious  loss  he  decided  to  make  his 
home  once  more  in  New  Haven,  where  he  and  his  wife 
had  many  friends  and  relations.  Until  after  her  hus- 
band's death  Mrs.  Sherman  lived  at  20  High  Street 
and  there,  in  her  parlor,  she  was  always  proud  to  show 
the  quaint  little  "Piano  Forte"  which  had  come  so 
many  years  before  from  Glasgow. 

We  have  seen  that  John  Taylor  was  generous  to 
his  children.  He  was  public -spirited  as  well,  and  as 
an  instance  of  this  we  note  that  he  became,  in  1820, 
one  of  the  original  shareholders  of  the  Mercantile  Li- 
brary Association  "for  the  use  of  Merchants'  Clerks  and 
others."  Another  evidence  of  his  generosity  is  interest- 
ing. During  the  War  of  1812  it  was  with  the  greatest 
difficulty  that  money  could  be  had.  Congress  in  1813 
authorized  the  borrowing  of  $16,000,000  and  toward 
this  issue  of  bonds  Mr.  Taylor  subscribed  $150,000,  no 
mean  sum  in  those  days. 

John  Taylor  was  destined  to  become  for  the  second 
time  a  widower.  On  February  2,  1823,  Jane  Davis, 
then  in  her  fifty-fourth  year,  died,  after  having  been 
his  wife  for  over  twenty-three  years.  I  do  not  know 
if  it  be  my  imagination,  but  it  does  not  seem  to  me 
that  he  felt  as  tenderly  toward  her  as  he  had  toward 
his  "still  dearer  Margaret  Scott."  As  an  indication 
of  this  I  note  that  in  an  unproved  will  made  in  1815, 
just  before  he  and  Jane  sailed  for  England,  he  directed 
that  his  "Wife  Jane"  should  receive,  if  she  continued 
to  be  his  widow,  five  hundred  dollars  annually,  but 

[47] 


JOHN  TAYLOR,  OF  GLASGOW  AND  NEW  YORK 

that  if  she  remarried  she  was  to  have  but  two  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  and  that  this  was  to  be  considered 
in  lieu  of  dower.  "But,"  he  added,  with  what  seems 
undue  severity,  "should  my  said  Wife  Jane  be  disatis- 
fied  with  the  provisions  made  for  her  and  claim  her 
Third  part  of  Income  of  my  real  Estate  all  payments 
of  annuity  shall  forever  cease  to  be  made  to  her  by  my 
Executors  and  her  annuity  be  settled  as  the  Law  may 
direct  for  Alien  Widows;  no  compromise  shall  be  made 
by  my  Executors  in  that  case."  (How  could  she  have 
been  considered  an  "Alien  Widow"  inasmuch  as 
John  Taylor  had  been  a  citizen  of  the  United  States 
since  1794!) 

For  three  years  after  Jane's  death  John  Taylor 
remained  a  widower,  but  he  must  have  been  lonely, 
as  none  of  his  children  were  then  living  at  home. 
Margaret  was  married,  as  we  know;  Eliza  and  Thaddeus 
were  at  New  Haven;  Janet  and  Charles  Sherman 
were  living  at  Suffield;  James  was  about  to  marry  and 
settle  down  in  Elizabeth,  New  Jersey;  Andrew  was 
doing  well  in  Liverpool,  and  it  was  said  that  he  too 
was  "about  to  commit  matrimony."  Scott,  the 
youngest  of  them  all,  was  living  on  a  farm  just  outside 
of  Suffield.  Robert  was  the  only  one  who  was  some- 
times with  his  father,  but  he  was  a  sea  captain  by 
this  time  and  seldom  at  home.  John  Taylor  was 
surely  lonely. 

More  than  one  of  his  children  have  told  me  the  tale 
of  his  third  courtship  and  I  give  it  as  it  has  been  nar- 
rated to  me.  The  old  gentleman  was  a  regular  at- 
tendant at  the  Scotch  Church  in  Cedar  Street.  It 
seems  that  he  had  often  noticed  there  a  little  lady, 

[48] 


BLOOMINGDALE   FARM 

a  dressmaker,  who  sat  in  the  side  aisle  near  him.  She 
was  a  dressy  little  person,  and  one  night  when  the 
service  was  over,  he  found  her  at  the  church  door 
in  great  distress  of  mind  because  it  was  raining  and 
she  had  no  umbrella.  He  gallantly  offered  his,  and 
his  arm  as  well,  and  escorted  her  home,  but  before 
leaving  her  on  her  doorstep  asked,  "Wad  ye  like  to 
hae  a  hame  o'  yer  ain?"  She  was  quite  willing,  and 
so,  on  May  1,  1826,  three  years  after  Jane's  death, 
and  when  the  bridegroom  was  seventy-four  years  of 
age,  they  were  duly  married. 

By  way  of  parenthesis  I  must  say  that  any  one 
who  notices  the  wording  of  this  wooing  will  realize 
that  John  Taylor  never  lost  his  strong  Scotch  accent! 

The  new  Mrs.  Taylor  was  far  younger  than  any 
of  her  husband's  daughters.  I  remember  her  well. 
When  I  was  a  child  I  was  often  taken  to  see  my  bustling 
little  great-grandmother,  who  was  so  much  younger 
than  my  grandmother  and  who  wore  such  gay  and 
flyaway  cap  ribbons,  and  I  still  remember  one  object 
in  her  house  which  was  of  the  greatest  interest  and 
fascination  for  me — a  little  stuffed  dog  which  lay 
always  asleep  under  her  piano! 

Mr.  Taylor  was  very  happy  with  his  third  wife 
and  called  her  "my  beloved  Eliza."  Over  a  year 
after  their  marriage  a  daughter  was  born,  but  to  the 
great  grief  of  Mrs.  Taylor,  lived  only  five  days. 

They  had  been  married  but  three  years  when  the 
city  turned  them  out  of  their  Pearl  Street  home,  and 
it  was  then  that  Mr.  Taylor  bought  a  house  and 
stable  at  23  Cliff  Street.  Here  he  and  his  wife  lived  un- 
til the  time  of  his  death,  which  was  now  not  far  off. 

[49] 


JOHN    TAYLOR,    OF   GLASGOW  AND    NEW   YORK 

In  May,  1832,  Margaret  with  her  husband  and  her 
two  little  sons  went  to  Europe  to  travel  for  a  year 
or  more,  and  it  was  during  this  absence  that  her  father 
passed  away.  After  a  lingering  illness  he  died  on  June 
30,  1833,  in  his  eighty-first  year.  His  memorial  tablet 
in  the  Scotch  Presbyterian  Church  tells  us  that  he  was 
a  man  of  "incorruptible  integrity  and  distinguished 
probity,"  which  was  probably  more  strictly  correct 
than  such  tablets  sometimes  are.  It  also  says  that 
he  had  been  "a  member  of  this  church  for  nearly 
half  a  century."  His  grandson,  John  Taylor  Johnston, 
thus  wrote  of  him:  "He  was  a  man  of  earnest  re- 
ligious convictions  and  the  influence  of  his  faith  was 
visible  in  all  the  relations  and  doings  of  life — in  the 
family,  the  counting-house,  and  in  his  general  inter- 
course with  society." 

He  was  at  first  buried  in  his  own  vault  under  the 
Murray  Street  Church,  but  after  his  son  Robert  had 
secured  a  vault  in  Greenwood  he  removed  the  remains 
of  his  father  and  of  his  own  mother,  Margaret  Scott, 
to  this  burial  plot.  Those  of  Jane  Davis  apparently 
were  left  under  the  Murray  Street  Church!  Many 
years  afterwards,  Robert  L.  Taylor's  daughter,  Mar- 
garet Taylor  Van  Nest,  wrote  the  following  account 
of  her  visit  to  this  vault: 

"My  grandfather,  John  Taylor,  I  never  saw  in 
life,  but  in  1872  when  the  Taylor  vault  in  Greenwood 
Cemetery  was  opened  ...  I  saw  his  coffin.  It  had 
fallen  to  pieces  .  .  .  The  face  was  wonderfully  pre- 
served .  .  .  and  the  thick  silver  hair  combed  straight 
back  (showing  a  fine  forehead,  both  broad  and  high) 

[50] 


BLOOMINGDALE    FARM 

covered  the  head,  and  hung  down  in  two  curls,  eight 
or  ten  inches  long,  tied  together  by  a  narrow  black 
ribbon  .  .  .  The  resemblance  to  his  portrait  painted 
from  life,  was  very  marked. 

"The  coffin  of  his  first  wife,  'the  still  dearer  Mar- 
garet Scott,'  had  also  fallen  apart .  .  .  and  I  saw  a 
mass  of  light  brown  hair.  The  remains  of  both  bodies 
and  both  coffins  were  placed  in  a  strong  cedar  box 
with  the  two  coffin  plates  ...  on  the  lid.  Later, 
Grandfather's  last  wife  was  buried  there,  with  my 
permission,  and  at  her  earnestly  expressed  desire,  'to 
lie  by  the  side  of  her  dearly  loved  husband.'  "  * 

In  his  Will  he  left  to  his  daughter,  Janet  Sherman, 
the  house,  farm,  stock  and  furniture  of  the  property 
at  Suffield  which  she  was  occupying,  and  Scott  was 
given  the  lands  and  mills  where  he  lived  near  by. 
The  store  at  72  South  Street  was  left  to  James,  An- 
drew and  Robert;  the  house  and  lot,  51  Maiden  Lane, 
to  the  four  sons.  Then  John  Taylor  spoke  of  his 
land  in  Scotland,  his  "equally  half"  of  the  beloved 
Cairnoch.  This  he  bequeathed  to  James  and  Andrew. 
One  other  thing  he  showed  sentiment  for — his  "eight- 
day  clock."  This  had  been  brought  over  from  Scot- 
land with  his  baby  Margaret,  and  to  her  he  left  it. 
The  clock  passed  by  will  in  1879  to  her  son,  John 
Taylor  Johnston,  who  in  turn  bequeathed  it  in  1893 
to  his  son,  John  Herbert  Johnston. 

Margaret  and  her  husband  hurried  home  from 
Scotland  when   they   heard   of  John  Taylor's   death. 

*  Mrs.  Taylor  the  3rd  died  in  December,  1879,  at  Chester,  Penna.  Later 
the  vault  was  permanently  closed  and  a  heavy  granite  slab  placed  over  the 
entrance. 

[51] 


JOHN    TAYLOR,    OF    GLASGOW   AND    NEW   YORK 

They  left  his  sister,  Mrs.  Buchanan,  and  his  sister- 
in-law,  Mrs.  Thomson,  living  in  Glasgow,  the  former 
still  "in  the  old  place  in  the  Dry  Gate."  Both  old 
ladies  were  then  very  feeble. 

It  was  absolutely  necessary  for  Mr.  Johnston  to 
come  home  immediately.  He  was  the  first  named  of 
Mr.  Taylor's  executors,  and  it  was  soon  discovered  that 
the  accounts  of  John  Taylor  &  Sons,  as  well  as  the  ac- 
counts of  the  many  trust  funds  in  his  care,  were  in  well- 
nigh  hopeless  confusion.  The  heirs  agreed  to  leave  the 
whole  matter  in  Mr.  Johnston's  hands,  but  even  the 
handsome  ledgers  of  hand-made  paper  had  not  sufficed 
to  keep  John  Taylor's  accounts  intelligible,  and  not- 
withstanding strenuous  efforts,  it  was  not  until  1840 
that  John  Johnston  succeeded  in  settling  up  the  estate. 
Then  the  heirs  in  grateful  appreciation  of  his  arduous 
and  tactful  services  presented  him  with  a  handsome 
pair  of  silver  pitchers,  which  to  this  day  are  valued 
heirlooms  in  the  Johnston  family. 

One  difficult  question  had  to  be  settled.  What 
was  to  be  done  with  the  Bloomingdale  Farm?  A 
family  council  was  held,  none  of  the  children  wanted 
it,  and  it  was  decided  that  it  should  be  sold,  "as  there 
was  no  possibility  of  the  city  growing  out  to  it  for 
a  century  or  more"!  In  1834  the  executors  sold  the 
ten  acres,  with  a  block  of  frontage  on  both  sides  of 
Fifth  Avenue,  for  $50,000!  What  would  the  family 
have  said,  or,  more  startling  still,  what  would  John 
Taylor  have  said,  had  he  known  that  only  eighty  years 
later  a  twenty  story  skyscraper  would  stand  on  the 
green  lawns  of  Bloomingdale  Farm! 

Before  I  close  this  sketch  you  will  want  to  know 

[52] 


BLOOMINGDALE   FARM 

the  fate  of  Cairnoch,  the  dear  Scotch  hillside  which 
John  Taylor  had  loved  ever  since  his  boyhood.  This, 
as  I  have  said,  was  bequeathed  to  James  and  Andrew. 
The  land  was  in  the  care  of  Dr.  John  Burnside,  who 
had  always  sent  half  of  the  income  from  it  to  John 
Taylor  and  the  other  half  to  the  heirs  of  his  brother 
James.  There  was  no  encumbrance  on  the  property 
except  an  annuity  of  £10  a  year  which  Mr.  Taylor 
had  been  in  the  habit  of  giving  to  his  sister,  Mrs. 
Buchanan.  She,  poor  old  lady,  died  only  a  year  after 
her  brother,  but  James  and  Andrew  agreed  to  continue 
the  annuity  to  her  two  daughters,  of  whom  one  was 
named  Margaret. 

As  for  income  from  Cairnoch — after  Mr.  Taylor's 
death  there  did  not  seem  to  be  any!  Dr.  Burnside  died 
about  a  year  after  his  friend,  and  the  new  agent  appears 
to  have  been  unreliable.  James  had  perforce  to  leave 
the  management  of  the  property  to  his  brother  in 
England,  but  Andrew  was  crotchety  and  hated  to  be 
bothered  about  it.  He  also  hated  to  write  letters 
and  did  not  even  answer  those  which  James  wrote  him. 

John  Taylor  had  left  his  undivided  half  of  Cairnoch 
to  his  sons  "on  the  express  condition  that  the  said 
farm  shall  neither  be  sold  mortgaged  or  encumbered 
in  any  way  through  the  natural  life  of  James  and 
Andrew  or  either  of  them,"  and  yet  in  1840  Andrew 
sent  word  that  he  had  "never  yet  received  a  dollar 
on  account  of  the  Farm"  and  that  he  should  "dispose 
of  it  as  soon  as  an  opportunity  occurred  of  making 
sale."  James  wrote  back:  "I  am  not  aware  of  ever 
having  seen  a,ny  title  deeds  of  this  property  and  am 
very  doubtful  if  our  father  held  them  in  his  possession. 

[53] 


JOHN  TAYLOR,  OF  GLASGOW  AND  NEW  YORK 

My  supposition  is  that  his  title  was  derived,  like  ours, 
through  the  will  of  his  father.  I  think  he  was  not 
the  eldest  son." 

It  was  not  until  1846,  when  thirteen  years  back 
rent  was  due,  that  James  received  any  income  from 
this  Scotch  property,  and  it  was  probably  sold  soon 
afterwards.  In  1890  James  Scott  Taylor  or  his  son 
of  the  same  name  entered  into  a  correspondence  with 
a  Glasgow  firm  regarding  Cairnoch.  They  answered 
that  it  had  been  sold  long,  long  ago  and  was  now  the 
property  of  D.  McGregor,  Solicitor,  Glasgow,  who 
may  have  been  a  descendant  of  the  MacGregors  who 
were  old  family  friends  of  the  Taylors. 

Here  I  come  to  the  end  of  my  tale.  It  has  been 
a  labor  of  love  to  write  it,  but  I  have  now  told  you 
everything  I  know  about  my  great-grandfather,  John 
Taylor,  about  his  three  wives  and  his  nine  children, 
about  Bloomingdale  Farm  and  the  business  of  John 
Taylor  &  Sons,  and,  as  you  see,  my  little  story  ends 
where  it  began — at  Cairnoch-on-Carron- Water. 


[54] 


APPENDIX 

THE  ANCESTRY  OF  JOHN  TAYLOR 
LETTERS 


THE  ANCESTRY  OF  JOHN  TAYLOR  "OF  NEW  YORK" 

COMPILED  BY  EMILY  JOHNSTON  DE  FOREST 

James  Taylor  =  Christian  Adam 

Parish  Records  of  Fintry 


Andrew 


"in  Lag  of  Fintry" 
Tutor  to  his  neph- 
ew, John  "in  East- 
er Cringate"  and 
portioner  of  Cair- 
noch. 


Parish  Records  of  St.  Ninians 
I 


b.  1698  | 

William  =  Elizabeth  Finlav 


i  Craigtown  of  Fintry." 


I 
James  =  Jean  Kay 


1700  |       1733  b. 

James  =  Isobel  Thomson 


1707  | 
Robert 


"portioner  of  Easter  Cringate" 
and  "portioner  of  Cairnoch." 
Will  proved  1755.  It  names 
tutors  for  his  son  John — An- 
drew "in  Lag  of  Fintry"  (his 
brother):  James,  son  of  de- 
ceased Wm.  (another  brother), 
and  three  others. 


b.  1712  | 

Archibald 


"Taylors  in  Lag  of  Fintry" 
(joint  purchasers  of  Cairnoch) 


j       1749 
Andrew  —  Janet  Buchan 
(possibly 
"Buchanan.") 


|  b.  1726  b.  1729  | 

James  =  Agnes  Rob        John 


Tutor  to  his 
cousin,  John 
"in  Easter 
Cringate" 


Robert 


1752  j  18 
John 


of  New  York 
(joint  portioners  of  Cairnoch) 


={1)  1783  Margaret  Scott 
=(2)  1799  Jane  Davis 
=(3)  1826  Eliza  Avery 

Child 
A  daughter  1827 

died  young 


|  b.  1757 
William 


1758  | 
John 


1 

John 

"in     Easter    Cringate" 
"portioner  of  Cairnoch," 
which   he   sold    to   two 
cousins,    brothers,  Tay- 
lors "in  Lag  of  Fintry." 

(1) 
=  Agnes  Finlay           = 

(2) 
=Margaret  Dun 
m.  1785 

|  b.  1767  b.  1768  | 

James  William 

(Settled  in  Jamaica,  W.  I.) 


j  b.  1790     jb.  1792    b.  1794) 


John 


William 


John 
(Carronbridge) 


David 

(Waterside) 


1784  |  1879 
Margaret 

m.  (1)  1809,  Rhesa  Howard 

Children: 

Elizabeth,   ?— 1812? 

m.  (2)  1817,  John  Johnston 
Children: 
John  Taylor,  1820-93 
Andrew  Taylor,  1821-22 
James  Boorman,  1822-87 
Margaret  Taylor,  1825-76 
Emily  Proudfoot,  1827-31 


1786  |  1862 

Elizabeth 

i.  1813,  Thaddeus  Shermar 

Children: 
John  Taylor,  1814-44 
Rhesa  Howard,  1815-21 
Thaddeus,  1816-1902 
Margaret  Scott,  1820-73 
Howard,  1821-1912 
Eliza  Taylor,  1824-1901 
Jessie  Buchanan,  1829-57 


1788  |  1793 

Andrew  (1) 

Died  young 


1789  I  1873 
James   Scott 

1.  1829,  Ann  Perrin 

Children: 
John,  1832-55 
James  Scott,  1835- 


1796  |  1878 
Robert  Lenox 

(I)  1835,  Helen  M.  Butle 


Children: 
Susan,  1838-77 
Robert,  1843-43 
Margaret,  1848-1 


1797  I  1842 
Scott 

1. 1826,  Caroline  Sherman 

Children: 
Elizabeth  M  ,  1833-39 

Charles, 


1791  I  1814       1793  |  1879  ?       1794  |  1843 
John  Burnside      Andrew  (2)  Janet 

Unmarried  m.  1828,  ?    Frances—        m.  1814,  Charles  Sherman* 

Children:  Children: 

Margaret  Scott  Margaret  Scott,  1815-95 

Henry,  1817-88 
James  Taylor,  1819-1907 
Andrew  Taylor,  1821-91 
Jane  Taylor,  1823-96 
Harriet,  1825-89 
Eliza  Taylor,  1827-87 
Janet  Taylor,  1829-1903 
John  Taylor,  1831-1906 
Robert  Tavlor,  1834-91 
Roger,  1837-46 
William  Watt,  1839-75 
Walter,  1843-80 
*  Charles  Sherman  had  two 

ll^tnT^hM  dtaitafgiVel)  ?tthiS«Cila?  areiD  ?°man  type'  whiIe  those  about  vvhich  there  '*  any  uncertainty  are  in  italics'.    ' 
whose  "if™  Christ!  n   \,L  „      ThTl     ,h      (7  ^uZ  "'D  ^  °f-  Fintr/'','  William  Taylor  "in  Craigtown  of  Fintry,"   and  James  Taylor  "of  Easter  Cringate,"  was  James  Taylor  (in  Lag  of  Fintry?), 
before  Ihe family  1  to  fcv        A    "        °f  thfe,1ruchlldren'  including  a  William  and  a  James,  are  to  be  found  in  the  records  of  Fintry  Parish.       There  is  no  record  of  an  Andrew? he  may  have  been  born 

parentage   but  so  far  it  has  not  bTen  poss^e^/oveY"8         "  D°  "^  *"*  ^  *  ^  Parlsh-        The  birth  datCS  a"d  Vari°US  °ther  detai'S  Se6m  t0  P°int  l°  the  — tness  °f  this  the^  as  to 

It  may  be,  however,  that  the  three  brothers  were  sons  of  John  Taylor  "in  Graysteal  of  Touchad: 
seem  to  correspond  w.th  other  evidence  as  well   as  do  those  of  James  Taylor  and  Christian  Adam 

.ead  intdtn;gThaeyl.°aUe,;sLe':fare.Flntry     ™  ^^  *"  ddMt  rf  ^ ^  h<°^>  ««  he  w 


and  his 
was  the  first  "tutoi 


ife,  Janet  Aikraan.      Their  records  appear  among  those  of  St.  Ninians  Parish,  but  do  not 
named  in  the  will  of  his  brother  James,  "portioner  of  Easter  Cringate,"  and  took  the 


APPENDIX 
LETTERS 

FROM  REV.  ANDREW  THOMSON,  NEWTON  OF  MEARNS, 
SCOTLAND,  TO  HIS  HALF-SISTER,  MARGARET  SCOTT  (MRS. 
JOHN  TAYLOR),  NEW  YORK. 

Feb.  20,  1796. 
[The  beginning  of  this  letter  is  missing.] 

.  .  .  children  to  him,  so  long  as  we  have  anything  to  ourselves, 
such  a  worthy  godly  man  will  be  a  blessing  about  our  house, 
Joseph  was  a  blessing  to  the  families  where  he  went,  so  I  believe 
Mr.  Scott  will  be. 

It  gives  us  the  highest  Satisfaction  to  learn  from  Mr.  Jamieson 
that  you  &  family  are  all  so  happy,  &  providence  smiling  so 
much  upon  you  as  to  outward  things,  but  you  know  who  hath 
said,  //  riches  increase,  set  not  your  heart  upon  them. — I  believe 
neither  you  nor  Mr.  Taylor  are  herds  of  the  World,  but  that  you 
both  take  the  use  of  it,  &  make  others  happy. — You  have  both 
the  highest  reason  to  bless  God  for  his  kindness  in  hitherto  carry- 
ing you  so  comfortably  through  as  to  temporal  concerns. — We 
understand  also  from  Mr.  J.  that  your  situation  is  very  pleasant 
in  your  new  house.  Buying  such  a  dear  house,  gives  us  no  near 
prospect  of  seeing  Mr.  Taylor  &  you  on  this  side  the  Atlantick. 

One  Minr.  I  wrote  to  to  preach  for  me  a  Sabbath  during  my 
Intended  absence,  wrote  me  as  his  mind,  that  I  should  rather 
take  a  voyage  to  Nyk  as  a  Jaunt  to  London,  &  I  liked  his  pro- 
posal very  well,  but  how  could  I  leave  such  a  family  to  the  Man- 
agement of  my  poor  Wife  for  such  a  space  of  time  as  that  would 
require,  &  also  leave  my  Congr.  so  long? — I  dare  say  you  will 

[57] 


OF   GLASGOW   AND    NEW   YORK 

believe  me  when  I  say,  that  could  a  month  take  us  to  Nyk  & 
back  again,  my  Wife  &  I  would  gladly  pay  you  a  Visit  in  your 
own  house,  but  the  distance  is  too  great  &  the  expense  beyond 
what  we  can  afford  .  .  . 

My  wife  joins  me  in  affe.  salutations  to  you  &  Mr.  Taylor  &c. 
I  remain 

My  Dear  Sister 

Your  most  Affe.  Brother 
Aw.  Thomson. 

Feby.  27th,  1797. 
My  Dear  Sister 

...  I  suppose  you  do  not  recollect  how  long  you  had  been 
silent,  for  the  Compleat  period  of  a  long  year,  we  had  not  one 
scrape  of  a  pen  from  you;  &  what  is  still  more  surprising,  neither 
in  your  Letters  to  Mr.  Scott  or  me,  do  you  make  the  least  Apology, 
but  begin  your  Letters  as  if  you  had  wrote  on  the  last  Wednesday, 
as  you  were  wont  to  do  when  in  Glasgow ...  I  believe  this  shall 
make  me  careless  whether  I  write  you  any  news  or  not:  because 
from  this  Silence  I  am  apt  to  Judge,  that  all  I  write  you  is  little 
regarded. — I  hear  my  Dear  Sister  saying,  "Now  that  Scotfs 
Parson  is  in  a  Dudgeon,  he  has  taken  the  Pet." — Say,  have  I  not 
good  ground,  had  I  you  within  arm's  length  of  me,  would  surely 
make  you  beg  Pardon. — So  much  for  an  Introduction  .  .  . 

We  wish  you  Joy  in  the  Addition  of  an  Alderman  to  your 
family,  and  are  happy  to  hear  that  you  recovered  well;  you  have 
now  got  a  large  family  .  .  . 

Mr.  Scott  enjoys  his  health  remarkably  well,  &  appears  to  be 
very  happy,  diverting  himself  with  walking  about  and  Reading  .  .  . 

You  very  kindly  propose  to  take  one  of  our  Children  out  if 
they  would  go  to  you:  we  are  greatly  obliged  to  you  for  the  pro- 
posal.— But  not  one  of  them  are  any  way  inclined  to  such  a  jour- 
ney, you  know  Peggy  is  too  useful  to  her  mother,  in  a  house 
where  we  keep  only  one  Servant,  to  part  with  her,  Jessie  once  said 
she  would  go,  but  soon  rued.  The  truth  is  you  have  a  large 
family  of  your  own  to  manage,  &  perhaps  if  a  little  Cousin  were 
to  go  out  among  them,  they  would  agree  worse  than  if  they  were 
no  way  related  .  .  . 

[58] 


APPENDIX 

Andr.  Taylor  I  think  is  also  dying  of  a  consumption  ...  he 
has  a  bad  Cough,  and  is  much  extenuated  .  .  . 

I  have  just  now  learned  from  my  Wife  that  your  Papa  has 
wrote  you  .  .  . 

Yours  most  affy. 

Aw.  Thomson. 


July  22,  1797. 
Dear  Sister 

.  .  .  Mr.  Fulton  (who  will  be  the  Bearer  of  this)  is  a  young 
Clergyman,  going  out  as  a  Missionary  to  Kentucky,  sent  out 
by  our  Synod,  I  hope  you  will  shew  kindness  &  attention  to  him, 
while  he  resides  in  Nyork. — He  was  long  about  Glasgow,  &  I 
suppose  well  acquainted  with  Mr.  Jos.  Taylers  family  .  .  . 
Your  father  &  all  our  family  are  well  .  .  . 
We  all  join  in  kind  love  to  you  Mr.  Tayler  &  family.  Dear 
Sister, 

Yours  Most  Affy. 

Aw.  Thomson. 


FROM  JOHN  TAYLOR,  NEW  YORK,  TO  THE  MISSES  MAR- 
GARET &  ELIZA  TAYLOR,  GLASGOW. 

[Possibly  summer  of  1808.]* 
Dear  Girls 

I  wrote  you  both  fully  pr  the  ship  Francis  on  the  30th  ulto 
since  which  nothing  material  have  occurred  I  think  the  Francis 
will  be  the  best  opportunity  for  you  to  return  if  she  does  not 
sail  too  early  in  the  season  for  you  if  James  prefers  coming  out 
with  Mr.  Jameson  I  have  no  objections  as  he  will  probably  not 
like  to  come  with  Mr.  Wilson  &  I  suppose  Mr.  Jameson  will 
chuse  a  different  vessl  also — I  wrote  Mr.  Burnside   about  your 

*  This  letter  must  have  been  written  after  the  "  hot  press  Bible  "  was 
printed  (1797)  and  before  Margaret  was  married  (1809).  Margaret  was 
thirteen  in  1797  and  twenty-five  in  1809.  The  letter  may  have  been  written 
in  the  summer  of  1808. 

Mrs.  James  Taylor  was  the  widow  of  John  Taylor's  brother. 

[59] 


JOHN  TAYLOR,  OF  GLASGOW  AND  NEW  YORK 

Piano  Forte     I  wish  you  to  bring  me  a  good  hot  press  Bible  with 
the  Apy  &  Psalms — and  a  few  Psalm  Books  for  the  church  &c 

You  must  make  my  best  respects  to  your  Grandmother  & 
two  Aunts  &  tell  Mrs.  Buchanan  that  I  have  sent  the  paper 
under  cover  to  Mr.  Burnside,  I  mean  if  possible  to  write  Mrs. 
James  Taylor  by  this  opty  but  in  case  I  do  not  you  must  supply 
its  place  by  giving  all  the  information  wanted.  I  shall  write 
you  again  before  your  leave  Glasgow — possibly  oftener  than  once 
I  am 

Yours 

John  Taylor 
Margaret  &  Eliza  Taylor 


FROM  JOHN  TAYLOR,  NEW  YORK,  TO   JOHN  JOHNSTON, 
GLASGOW. 

1st  June,  1818. 
Dear  Sir — 

With  much  pleasure  I  received  yours  of  27th  ulto.  off  the 
Hook:  I  now  write  agreeable  to  Your  desire  tho  I  have  nothing 
new  to  communicate.  Mrs.  Taylor*  has  been  worse  since  You 
sail'd  but  is  now  considerably  better  tho  still  confined  to  Bed, 
and  likley  to  recover  if  it  is  not  the  forerunner  of  some  other 
disorder,  this  time  only  can  disclose.  She  sends  her  love  to 
Margaret  &  desires  me  to  say  that  she  is  a  little  better  than  she 
was  at  last  Interview.     Eliza  also  sends  her  respects.     All  friends 

are  well. 

Yours  sincerely, 

John  Taylor. 

Sept.  23,  1818. 
Dear  Sir — 

Your  Sundry  favors  from  Glasgow  I  duly  received  .  .  .  and  I 
am  happy  to  find  that  You  &  Margaret  is  well — but  I  supose 
her  funds  are  by  this  time  pretty  low  therefore  I  Enclose  a  Bank 
note  of  the  Bank  of  England  for  Fifty  pounds  Stg.  which  please 
hand  to  her  with  my  best  wishes.  .  . 

*  The  second  Mrs.  Taylor  (Jane  Davis). 

[60] 


APPENDIX 

Business  has  been  a  little  better  this  fall  tho  at  present  its 
rather  dull.  I  suppose  Mr.  Boorman*  writes  You  often  on  the 
subject  of  Business  in  So.  Street.  I  will  be  glad  to  hear  often 
from  You  &  would  write  you  often  if  I  could  do  it  better  and 
this  is  not  for  want  of  constant  practice  as  I  spend  from  6  to  8 
hours  every  day  of  the  week  [at  it]  except  Sabbath. 

Say  to  Margaret  that  Mrs.  Doctor  Rogers  is  dead.     I  do  not 
recolect  any  other  death  that  she  was  acquainted  with  .  .  . 
Yours  sincerely, 

John  Taylor. 

4th  Dec,  1818. 
Dear  Sir — 

Your  Sundry  favors  I  have  received  the  lattest  of  which  is 
from  London  26  Septemr.  Being  so  much  in  debt  in  the  letter 
way  I  must  write  tho  I  have  little  or  nothing  to  communicate  .  .  . 
and  indeed  I  was  rather  uncertain  to  write  You  for  You  was  change- 
able as  the  wind. 

With  respect  to  News,  I  have  little  to  say  not  being  a  mounger 
of  that  article.  Money  is  very  scarce,  the  Banks  discounts  less 
than  usual  and  people  in  general  wants  more.  This  is  a  con- 
siderable check  to  business.  Tho  the  sales  this  fall  in  our  line 
has  been  tolerable  but  we  find  some  that  after  trusting  them 
8  or  9  months  wish  to  borrow  the  money  from  us  to  take  up  their 
notes  ...  we  hope  that  the  most  will  now  go  through  the  winter 
with  whole  bones  .  .  . 

Say  to  Margaret  that  I  intend  [to]  write  her  when  she  gets 
to  Glasgow  and  as  for  Yourself  be  very  thankful  for  this  for  I 
have  not  wrote  such  a  long  letter  in  complementry  form  for  many 
years  past  and  tho  I  am  writing  night  and  day,  I  grow  worse 
&  worse  of  it  every  day  but  necessity  has  no  law — be  it  well  or 
111  I  must  do  it. 

We  have  just  received  letters  from  Andw.  at  Dublin  but  supose 
that  he  is  now  at  Manchester  .  .  . 

Yours  sincerely, 

John  Taylor. 

*  John  Johnston's  partner. 

[61] 


JOHN  TAYLOR,  OF  GLASGOW  AND  NEW  YORK 

21  Dec,  1818. 
Dear  Sir — 

Enclosed  is  two  small  bills  of  Exchange  value  £71  7s  Stg 
for  the  use  of  Margaret  who  I  suppose  by  this  time  is  not  strong 
in  funds  unless  You  have  lent  your  aid  .  .  . 
Yours  sincerely, 

John  Taylor. 

8  Jan.,  1819. 
Dear  Sir — 

I  wrote  You  a  few  days  ago  per  the  Ship  Fanny  for  Greenock 
enclosing  two  small  bills  for  Margaret,  the  seconds  I  sent  to 
Andrew  to  be  forwarded  in  case  of  need.  I  have  just  come  across 
another  small  bill  of  £44  Stg.  which  I  here  enclose  for  her  use. 
I  dare  say  you  are  wishing  her  at  home  again,  being  the  most 
expensive  part  of  your  Luggage .  .  . 

Business  extremely  dull  &  money  scarce  .  .  .  Several  f ailours  .  .  . 
and  some  Dry  Goods  Scoundrels  by  whom  we  get  sheaved. 

This  is  all  the  nonsence  I  have  to  tell  you  at  Present.  Re- 
member me  to  Margaret. 

Yours, 

John  Taylor. 


FROM  FLEMING  &  BUCHANAN,  26  PORT  HENRY  STREET, 
STIRLING,  TO  EDWIN  M.  WIGHT,  SOLICITOR,  280  BROAD- 
WAY, NEW  YORK. 

17  June,  1890. 
Dear  Sir — 

Mr.  Sempill  has  handed  to  us  your  letter  to  him  of  the  2nd 
inst.  &  as  desired  we  have  made  inquiries  regarding  the  Estate 
of  Cairnock  &  the  Taylors  who  were  at  one  time  proprietors. 

We  have  seen  several  people  from  the  Carron-water  district, 
where  Cairnock  is  situated,  and  today  had  a  long  interview  with 
John  Taylor,  Carronbridge,  &  David  Taylor,  Waterside,  Carron- 
bridge,  who  are  grandsons  of  the  late  John  Taylor,  Easter  Cringat, 
who  was  at  one  time  proprietor  of  Cairnock.     He  sold  it  to  the 

[62] 


APPENDIX 

Taylors  of  the  Lagg  about  100  years  ago.  The  Taylors  of  the 
Lagg  were  cousins  of  the  other  Taylors.  The  Taylors  we  met 
today  are  not  aware  of  their  having  relations  in  America.  They 
had  two  uncles  who  went  out  to  Jamaica  but  they  cannot  say 
what  became  of  them.  Old  Taylor  was  twice  married.  The 
gentlemen  we  saw  today  are  descendants  of  the  second  marriage 
while  the  two  uncles  who  went  out  to  Jamaica  were  of  the  first 
marriage. 

We  have  not  yet  been  able  to  get  much  information  regarding 
the  Taylors  of  the  Lagg  but  expect  to  have  a  call  on  an  early  day 
from  a  relation  when  we  will  write  to  you  again.  We  are  told 
however  that  there  were  two  of  them  and  that  they  purchased 
the  property  jointly. 

Can  you  tell  us  to  which  of  the  families  your  clients  are  related? 
Where  and  when  Andrew  Taylor  lived  and  died  in  this  country? 
If  you  can  also  give  us  further  information  we  shall  be  pleased. 

P.  S.  D.  McGregor,  Solicitor,  Glasgow  is  now  proprietor 
of  Cairnock. 


[63] 


